Getting it Right

Harper's Lies & Deceit regarding the Canadian Economy

2011-09-21T23:01:00.001-07:00

Stephen Harper is continuously deceiving and lying to Canadians about the state of our economy. Yesterday, Stephen Harper claimed:

There are more people working in Canada today than before the recession, the ONLY advanced country where that is the case.

This sounds all very positive, but, unfortunately, it's far from the truth.

Let's analyse.

Canada's unemployment is up (NOT down).

1) "There are more people working in Canada today than before the recession." That might well be the case, but there are also more Canadians without a job than before the recession.

You don't believe me?

Check out this report from our own Stats Canada (9 September 2011), and see the unemployment figure, which I have copied below:

You see? 7.4% of Canadians are unemployed now, while that number was close to 6% before the 2008 recession hit.Harper's "there are more people at work now than before the recession" implies unemployment is down, when in reality unemployment is up.

But then it get's worse, and Harper moves from implicit deceit to explicitly lying, all in a single sentence (what a craftsman):

2) "Canada is the ONLY advanced country where that is the case" - Really? How about one of Europe's strongest economies, Germany?

Canadas economy performs far worse than Germany's (yes, Germany is an advanced country...)

Apparently Germany has been doing really well throughout this recession. A simple Google News search shows how Harper is lying through his teeth. On August 31 Bloomberg's BusinessWeek.com reported:

[Germany's] jobless rate held at 7 percent, the lowest since records for a reunified Germany began in 1991.

Yesterday, the same website explains:

German unemployment at a two-decade low of 7 percent may boost household spending and help offset slowing exports.

This information is being backed up by a recent (and highly reliable) report by Germany's own Bundesagentur fur Arbeit (Germany's Federal Employment Agency.) On page 12, figure 6, the "Deutchland" line represents the falling unemployment (Arbeitslose) of all of Germany (copied below):

Germany's current unemployment numbers are far below those right before the recession, so, Harper, isn't it time for an apology to the Canadian people. Apparently not. Today Harper makes the same false claim again. Both times journalists (Gloria Galloway from the G&M, and Mark Kennedy from Post Media News) do not refute the false claims made by our country's Prime Minister.

MSM journalists are failing us
Personally I don't really blame Stephen Harper for his lies and deceit.Apart from being a heartless asshole, he's just doing his work by playing politics with the facts. What bothers me most is the complacency of the Canadian newspapers, who simply copy and paste whatever comes out of Harper's ass. Journalist are supposed to keep our politicians honest by refuting lies and deceit, so why is it that they aren't doing their homework?

I get the impression that The Globe and Mail, a corporate entity, believes that painting rosy picture of the economy is good for business (and investment), and therefore G&M sides with their corporate advertisers (who, BTW, believe the same thing).NOT refuting Harper's lies is a "cheap" (or sophisticated, depending on one's own bias) way to feed the rosy picture of the economy and keep corporate advertisers happy, without doing the actual lying (Harper lied, G&M just spreads the lies); a win-win for the corporate elite, if you will.

Lame MSM has become mouthpiece for Conservatives and Corporate power
G&M (and Canada's MSM) clearly have become a mouthpiece of the Harper government, and one starts wondering how different such a media/government relationship really is from the one the Russia had some 30 years ago. They equally produce propaganda, journalistic garbage.

William Berardino, or how biased and corrupt can a British Columbia Special Prosecutor be?

2010-10-23T15:11:00.024-07:00

Anyone else outraged about the Basi & Virk BC Rail corruption scandal?

In the latest twist Bill Berardino, the Special Prosecutor of the case (who is in many ways `special`), brokered a deal that would have the accused Dave Basi and Bob Virk plead guilty to charges of corruption, and then foot the bill ($18 million and counting) to us, the taxpayer.

Does that pass the smell test to you?

Not to Getting It Right!

This Bill whose idea it was to send us the $18 million dollar bill, Mr. William Berardino, why doesn't he have these two criminals pay for it, or at least a big part of it?

Perhaps there's a better explanation of why Bill's ruling has sent Basi and Virk home smiling:

Rumour has it (it`s actually all over the internet) that Mr William Berardino isn't exactly that "free from any political interference whatsoever," as some would have us believe. William Berardino is exceptionally well connected with the BC Liberals government, especially for someone who is supposed to be impartial:

For many years Mr. Berardino was buddy-buddy with Geoff Plant, yes, indeed, the Attorney General and BC Liberal Geoff Plant.
Allan Seckel was buddy-buddy with Geoff Plant too (working at the same law firm Fasken Martineau), before he was hired by Gordon Campbell (no further details available on Mr. Campbell at this point) to become head of BC Public Service.
Mr. Berardino was appointed by the Ministry of the Attorney General, of which Geoff Plant was the Attorney General (in 2005, bc rail corruption case dates back to 2004), and Allan Seckel, Deputy Attorney General (since 2003).

Weird, eh? Sorry for repeating myself here, but the main reason for hiring an independent Special Prosecutor is his independence. Now this guy is clearly not independent, far from it. Mr. William Berardino has been buddies with the BC Liberals political elite for years. And those BC Liberals are exactly the same club of people that Basi and Virk were working for!

You would think that a not-so-independent Special Prosecutor would at least try to act as carefully as possible to not (cough) appear biased, right?

Not this joker.

In May 2005, about 1.5 years after being asked for the case, William Berardino's own firm Berardino's & Harris donated $500 to BC Liberal candidate and future Attorney General Wally Opal.

Berardino [said] he was asked to attend a fundraising breakfast for [Oppal]. He said the donation has no impact on his handling of the case.

That might well be true, but spending meals with and giving donations to a BC Liberal and future Attorney General while being a prosecutor on such a massive corruption scandal involving BC Liberal aids, let's just say such blatant mingling with BC Liberals doesn't look good for any prosecutor, and definitely not for a Special Prosecutor.

An investigation by the BC Law Society (not particularly independent themselves, and known for whitewashing the misconduct of their own members) concluded (surprise, surprise) no (legal) misconduct had taken place. But on the real issue here, conflict of interest, the BC Law Society was silent and never commented.

Let me repeat it again: obviously, donating moneys to one of the parties (yes, the BC Liberal Party had hired Basi and Virk) under investigation is a serious conflict of interest (apparent or otherwise).

Wait, there's more:

The latest blunder happened only days ago. William Berardino was caught informing the BC Liberal government about a possible plea deal:

Read the Times Colonist (before they covered up this detail):

"But when special prosecutor Bill Berardino made the B.C. government aware on Oct. 5 that he had proposed to let the two men plead guilty, it fell to the deputy minister of finance, Graham Whitmarsh, and Loukidelis to figure out whether they would actually have to come up with the money, Loukidelis's statement read."

Paul Willcocks has excellent comment on the above (emphases mine):

Why would the special prosecutor "make the government aware" of his plea offer?

[If] the special prosecutor is briefing the government of his plans, he is no longer independent.

Telling the government of plans to seek a plea bargain, for example, invites interference. Either by proposing a different strategy or, as in this case, offering financial inducements to encourage a guilty plea.

Well said, Paul.

So how biased and corrupt is William Berardino, this Special Prosecutor of the BC Rail corruption case? Hard to say, but let's just say William Berardino did very little to avoid the (cough) appearance of bias, which is supposed to be the main reason for hiring a Special Prosecutor.

No doubt in my mind that some other, more sinister reasons have played its part in hiring William Berardino as a Special Prosecutor.

What idiot did make the decision to hire Berardino, someone that is so well connected to the BC Liberals? What? Geoff Plant, the former Attorney General and BC Liberal? Oh, now I see why this is called the BC Rail corruption trial.

I rest my case.

Recall in the fall? You bet ya!

Read more:

The ever-ethical William Berardino does all kind of lovely jobs; defending Big Tabacco was one of them. At least we know what side Berardino is on; on the other side of the interests of healthy British Columbians.
How Gary Collins (BC Liberal, minister of finance) and Judith Reid (BC Liberal, minister of transportation) got out of their irky situation;
Even the (BC Liberal supporter first, journalist second) Les Leyne wants answers...quite amazing, isn't it?
Lots more here to: BC Rail Corruption case.
Fight HST and give yourself a break from Liberals lies.

Doug Lacombe is Getting it Right's very first Demagogue of the Week!

2010-08-22T23:11:00.005-07:00

We love Doug Lacombe!

What two little words can do. Could be is what's at issue here. It's exactly those two words (and their variations, such as may be) that have been fundamental when deciding upon GIR's first "Demagogue! of the Week".

We have a nominee: it is Doug Lacombe for his article "Wikileaks lacks checks and balances"

About the nomination
Doug Lacombe uses a copy and paste trick (wonderful, no pain) for his amazing deed:

" . . . those who are tempted to publish classified information in the name of press freedoms should be aware that their naivete and their blind devotion to 'the public's right to know' could be rightly termed aiding and abetting the enemy by endangering the safety of Canadian soldiers abroad. A little forethought and a large dose of loyalty to our side of the war can literally mean the difference between life and death for our soldiers, and also Afghan civilians."

You see? Could be. Totally and absolutely useful. Suddenly Wikileaks is not only exposing war abuses, oh no, THEY ARE KILLING CANADIANS! Well, could be, anyways. No explanation of course HOW this information would "endanger the safety" of Canadian troops (that's too much detail to ask, I suppose), no, a simple "could kill Canadian troops" is all that is needed.

Congratulations!
Doug Lacombe, you've done a great job! It's perfect. With a simple sentence (that you didn't have to even write yourself) you have been nominated for demagogue of the week: you've effectively turned Wikileaks from a idealistic whistleblower organization into an Canadian troops killing war propaganda machine, and therefore you have been nominated "Demagogue! of the Week".

Well done!

Footnotes:
1) Some more craftsmanship from his article below:
- "Sadly Assange, a convicted Australian computer hacker according to the Los Angeles Times
(not bad, Doug, and again no pain to produce it, or was there?)
- The self-righteous "we know what's best" attitude that seems to characterize Assange's various public responses concerns me. Isn't that the very definition of a despot?
(could well be the very definition, touche!)
2) Great title too! Of course Wikileaks has checks and balances, but there's no harm in adding a little lie here and there if you want to be nominated!

Related Article:
- Doug Lacombe: "Wikileaks lacks checks and balances"

Why Doug Lacombe may be a demagogue

2010-08-01T15:03:00.002-07:00

In response to Doug Laccombe:
"Wikileaks lacks checks and balances"

http://communicatto.com/2010/07/31/wikileaks-lacks-checks-and-balances/

Original post below this response

Did you know that Wikileaks HAS a proper process in place to vet the incoming materials and an error free trackrecord of vetting out bogus submissions?

Just because you're not aware of the checks and balances Wikileaks uses to vet their sources doesn't mean they don't have policies to deal with vetting.

But whistleblowers need to be protected, and wikileaks does so in two ways:
1) By not revealing their sources (secretive by nature)
2) By assisting with legal funds to those that are accused of being the source

What's troublesome in your post is that you accuse Wikileaks of being too secretive about their own sources, a moral judgement, while not making the same kind of judgement about the use of informants (talk about secretive, and possible abuse) by the coalition forces.

Your hypocritic stand is further amplified by:
1) Calling Assange a despot; to what purpose may I ask?
2) The amount of articles you've written on the secretive nature of coalition forces warfare intelligence vetting as presented by the media, in particular now abuses have become apparent after the wikileaks;

In short, your article is nothing short of a "shoot the messenger" bias, and why, just because the vetting process isn't public?

Lest we forget, we all know who is responsible for the killings of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, and it wasn't wikileaks.

Wikileaks' record on harm done to innocent people is zero. If the US Army acts responsibly with their own sources (just like wikileaks does with theirs) then they would now do everything possible to protect their informants. But if we can learn anything from the Afghan War Leaks, then it is that US forces have no trouble killing innocent Afghans and then cover up the evidence.

But you knew all that right? That's why your post is so repulsive. Isn't such writing the work of a demagogue?

-------------------------------

Social media is increasingly becoming implicated in moments of crisis and significant world events. The 2009 Iranian election is a great example.

Thanks to a variety of technical manoeuvres, the Iranian government could not throttle the protesters' use of Twitter to report on those events. Where traditional media could not tread, the citizenry and Twitter stepped in.

This year's catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was another example where Twitter reporting reigned supreme.

Depth of reporting was improved at this year's G20 protests in Toronto by tweets from many, including TV Ontario's Steve Paikin (@spaikin on Twitter).

The common thread is people voluntarily reporting what they see. In other words, they choose to share the information or events unfolding in front of them, even as others attempt to deny them a voice. This is good.

A whole new genre of social reporting, if it can be called that, came to the fore this week. Website WikiLeaks.org dumped classified documents about the war in Afghanistan onto the web and into the hands of three newspapers.

From Wikipedia: "WikiLeaks released to The Guardian, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel over 92,000 documents related to the war in Afghanistan between 2004 and the end of 2009. The logs detail individual incidents including friendly fire and civilian casualties. The scale of leak was described by (WikiLeaks spokesperson) Julian Assange as comparable to that of the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s. On July 25, 2010, the logs were released to the public."

The Pentagon Papers, you may recall, were brought to the attention of the American public in 1971 via the New York Times, essentially demonstrating that the Johnson administration had lied to the public about Vietnam.

Trained, professional journalists and their editors reviewed the leaked materials and, with utmost care and due diligence, weighed issues of national security and the public's right to know.

WikiLeaks has no such filter, no checks and balances, or none we can see. It's just a raw data dump with spotty redaction for everyone to pore over and draw our own conclusions. Oh yes, and for the Taliban/al-Qaida gang to pore over and target informants for retribution. This is not good.

Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University in London, writes on CNN.com "The posting of 92,000 documents on WikiLeaks about the war in Afghanistan represents a triumph for what I like to call 'data journalism.' . . . However, the posting of the material on the Internet is not in itself an act of journalism. It is merely the beginning of a journalistic process, requiring analysis, context and, in this particular instance, a form of necessary censorship in order to protect individuals identified in the documents."

Necessary censorship. WikiLeaks didn't quite get the hang of redacting names or identifying circumstances in their haste to let the public know.

A recent editorial in the Calgary Herald put it succinctly: " . . . those who are tempted to publish classified information in the name of press freedoms should be aware that their naivete and their blind devotion to 'the public's right to know' could be rightly termed aiding and abetting the enemy by endangering the safety of Canadian soldiers abroad. A little forethought and a large dose of loyalty to our side of the war can literally mean the difference between life and death for our soldiers, and also Afghan civilians."

If WikiLeaks truly believed in the public's right to know, they would become transparent themselves. Doing so earns our trust in their intentions. Sadly Assange, a convicted Australian computer hacker according to the Los Angeles Times, and his horde of info-dumpers seem to feel they are exempt from such inconveniences.

The self-righteous "we know what's best" attitude that seems to characterize Assange's various public responses concerns me. Isn't that the very definition of a despot?

As usual, send me your feedback on Twitter at:

@dblacombe or via e-mail doug@communicatto.com.

Doug Lacombe is president of Calgary

social media agency communicatto.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

Is Nick Clegg going to make Proportional Representation a priority?

2010-05-08T21:30:00.001-07:00

Who knows?

--
Sent from my mobile device

Stephen Harper comments on death of 134 Canadian soldier in Afghanistan

2009-12-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

SH: It's really unfortunate for his family, and we would like to send our sincere condolences.

GIR: Prime minister Harper, do you feel at all responsible for soldiers returning home dead?

SH: Not really. You know, that's part of waging a war against terrorists. There's lots of bad guys out there, and, unfortunately, the family of this last soldier has to deal with the consequences of him volunteering. Besides, this happened thousands of miles away, and, as far as I can tell, no Canadians were involved in the killing itself.

GIR: But the soldier is Canadian...

SH: yes, yes, but we feel very sorry but it's really not my problem.

GIR: Isn't that a bit insensitive?

SH: ...

GIR: Prime minister...?

SH: Sorry, I got distracted by some emails from Peter...

GIR: Peter?

SH: You know, Peter MacKay. He's asking how to mark emails as "unread", any ideas?

GIR: No, I don't. Prime Minister, don't you think that when you say that the death of a Canadian soldier is "not my problem", that such a statement can be regarded as a tad insensitive?

SH: Oh yes, of course, don't write this stuff down! This is not for publication, is it?

NOAM CHOMSKY: “The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism” (video)

2009-12-17T22:37:00.001-08:00

Noam Chomsky delivers the 5th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture: The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism at Columbia University School for International Affairs.

Why didn't Stephen Harper fire Richard Colvin back in 2006 when Colvin made his ludicrous allegations?

2009-12-16T22:19:00.008-08:00

Because Steve LLOOOOVVEEEESS torture! He always did and always will! Torture is cool, as long as nobody knows about it.

Better keep Colvin quiet and don't get your hands dirty.

More preferential treatment for Vancouver RCMP officer charged with drunk driving - yes, that's a criminal offence!

2009-11-10T09:24:00.006-08:00

Remember this post? Well, even today RCMP officers continue to receive preferential treatment.

Here's another example:

Vancouver Mountie faces second impaired driving charge in two months

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A Mountie in Vancouver is facing his second impaired driving charge in two months.
Vancouver police say they pulled the off-duty officer over Saturday morning and breath samples showed he was over the legal limit for blood alcohol.
The 55-year-old officer, whose name has not been released, already had a court date from a previous impaired driving charge and was prohibited from driving for 90 days.
He's now been charged with driving while prohibited, impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit.

Name not released, huh? In case of drunk driving it pays off to be with the RCMP. And they're good at it too:

[The un-named RCMP officer] is the latest in a number of Metro Vancouver police officers who have faced impaired driving charges in the last two years, including a Mountie charged in a Delta, B.C., crash that killed a 21-year-old motorcyclist in October 2008. [...]

LINKS

CP: At the RMCP we love to demonize criminal behaviour, except for when we do it ourselves.

TN! of the week: Officer Todd Lappegaard of the Minneapolis Police Department (video)

2009-11-03T19:16:00.006-08:00

Have a look at the following video. It's self-explanatory, and a lot of "fun" :)

http://wcco.com/video/?id=69634@wcco.dayport.com

Todd Lappegaard, you are the Taser Nazi of the Week.

Congratulations!

H/T Excited Delirium

LINK
- Star Tribune, Minneapolis: Todd Lappegaard exposed

Tasers OK in theory, BAD IN PRACTICE

2009-10-19T08:49:00.003-07:00

By Kris Kotarski, Calgary Herald October 19, 2009 9:18 AM

Earlier this month, just days before the second anniversary of Robert Dziekanski's death at Vancouver International Airport, Taser International posted a bulletin for law enforcement organizations instructing officers to avoid shooting people in the chest, and encouraging them to target the abdomen, legs or back.

"When possible, avoiding chest shots with electronic control devices avoids the controversy about whether ECDs do or do not affect the human heart."

Aim lower. Avoid controversy. Words to live by.

Considering the ongoing public-relations disaster that is the Braidwood Inquiry into the Oct. 14, 2007 death of Dziekanski after he was repeatedly stunned by RCMP officers with Taser International's weapons, it is not surprising that "the controversy" is a matter of grave concern for the company.

Controversy is not conducive to a healthy bottom line, and even fundraisers featuring Playboy bunnies cannot make people forget the stunning video of Dziekanski screaming on the floor before he died, with four RCMP officers standing over him with Tasers drawn.

The Braidwood Inquiry has heard a number of compelling arguments to ban the weapons completely, and Amnesty International's running tally of American fatalities that occurred shortly after a Taser discharge (presently at 351 since 2001) is enough to give anyone pause.

Yet, as Taser International and police spokespeople are quick to point out, there are also compelling reasons to continue to arm officers with the weapons, especially in light of the very real dangers faced by the police.

The second anniversary of Dziekanski's death is a good moment to reflect on this ongoing argument, and to consider what electroshock weapons have done to our society. Do Tasers make us safer? And, more importantly, do they make us a better people?

Writing at Salon.com,American blogger Digby has argued that "Tasers were sold to the public as a tool for law enforcement to be used in lieu of deadly force." "Nobody wants to see more death and if police have a weapon they can employ instead of a gun, in self-defence or to stop someone from hurting others, I think we all can agree that's a good thing. But that's not what's happening."

A quick YouTube search shows a number of incidents in the United States and in Canada where officers use the weapons against people who, as Digby puts it, "have not broken any law and whose only crime is being disrespectful toward their authority or failing to understand their 'orders.' "

Here's but one example. After getting into an argument about a parking ticket with a Kelowna RCMP officer in 2007, 68-year-old John Peters was punched in the head and Tasered twice while sitting in his car next to his horrified wife. It is not difficult to imagine how the argument between Peters and the officer may have progressed, but it does require a major stretch of the imagination to see how a 68-year-old stroke survivor who is partially blind in one eye could have possibly threatened the officer in a manner that justified his treatment.

In that case, the RCMP has since admitted its mistake and the officer was disciplined by the force, but that hardly makes up for the terror of the initial situation. And that is the problem with Tasers. Anyone who has read about cases like Dziekanski's or Peters' is entitled to feel disgusted by the practical-- if not the theoretical --use of the weapons.

The basic premise underlining community support for police work is fairness. Without fairness, there is no chance for trust, and without trust, the dangers faced by police officers and ordinary citizens increase exponentially.

Weapons like Tasers continue to shock the conscience not because of how they are used in theory, but because of how they are used in practice. And, despite assurances by Taser International, aiming lower will not solve the underlying issue of fairness, or stop the very credible accusations of cruelty, negligence and abuse.

Kris Kotarski's Column Runs Every Second Monday.

LINKS
- Calgary Herald: Tasers BAD in theory, BAD in practice

TED Talks; the power of images and context

2009-10-08T23:08:00.004-07:00

or see it here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/taryn_simon_photographs_secret_sites.html

Victoria's Times Colonist Sucks! (1) - The Arts section, September 26th, 2009

2009-09-26T15:00:00.007-07:00

I read this very interesting arts-story in the Arts section of today's Times Colonist;

Martha Stewart issued an apology to Jessica Simpson on her daytime talk show Thursday after [she] made some insensitive remarks about Simpson's lost-and-presumed-dead dog, Daisy.

"(Simpson) should have been more careful," Stewart, 68, had told Us Weekly at the 25 Most Stylish New Yorkers gala on Sept. 15, adding that Simpson should "get another dog."

Simpson has reportedly been inconsolable since Daisy was abducted by a coyote less than two weeks ago. [...]

The owner of multiple dogs herself, Stewart admitted that she regretted her comments about Simpson's beloved Maltipoo.

"I said that she should have been watching her dog more closely, but I feel very, very sorry for anybody that loses a pet," Stewart said yesterday on The Martha Stewart Show. "Jessica, I hope you find your pet, but if you don't, I'm really sorry that you lost one."

That's the Arts section for you, brought to you by "the Vitoria Times Colonist Sucks!" Very interesting Art news indeed!

Braidwood Inquiry Resumes - How to actualy hear something???

2009-09-22T11:15:00.005-07:00

They seem to have some trouble with the sound; the audio is way too soft!!

Here's how to solve it;

1. download and install VLC player
2. Open program.
3. Select "Media >> Open Network Stream" (from the top menu bar)
4.* Use "protocol http" and copy/paste the following media stream below
mfile.akamai.com/8752/live/reflector:59819.asx
5. Once it opens, you can turn up the volume up to 400% by using your mouse wheel. That's right, 4 times as loud!

Good luck.

* PS; in case the media stream address changes (it might as well with each session), then open the Braidwood Inquiry stream (get it at the CBC.ca/bc web page; click the image under "live video"; it will open in Windows Media player embedded in the page), right-click the streaming image and select properties. In the menu that opens you can find the address needed for the VLC player (as described above om step 4).

Tar Sands = Climate Crime (video) - STOP THEM!

2009-09-21T07:47:00.005-07:00

Greenpeace video.

Wanna know what Royal Dutch Shell has been doing in the Albian Tar Sands? Have a look for yourself:

Watch today's Fair Voting BC meeting video stream online, right now! (video)

2009-09-19T11:34:00.005-07:00

Live stream of Fair Voting BC below:

Fox News; distorting, not reporting (video)

2009-09-18T22:53:00.001-07:00

As HuffPost's Jason Linkins reported earlier today, Fox News took out a full-page ad in the Friday addition of the Washington Post to boast about its coverage of the Tea Party protests last weekend in D.C. and also to goad its rivals by asking "How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN Miss This Story?"

A number of these networks didn't take the Fox News ad lying down, and fired back, saying the ad was "just false." CNN's Rick Sanchez gave an even more colorful response (watch here) in which he said, "Let me address the Fox News Network now perhaps the most current way that I can, by quoting somebody who recently used a very pithy phrase, two words. It's all I need: You lie," the AP reports.

Now, Media Matters reports, Sanchez's network aired an ad this evening that strikes back at Fox News' claim. The ad's slogan: "Fox News: Distorting, Not Reporting."

Best comment of the day: Ipsos-Reid lavishes marginal error onto Cons, CanWest spreads the news

2009-09-15T10:57:00.003-07:00

It's always good to read the comments section; surprisingly enough many people get-it-right, even after (or should I say thanks to?) years of mis-information spread by ConWest. Which brings me automatically to... Norman Spector.....

Exactly, who cares about such an asshole? I don't. Norman thinks he can win souls by using rigged polling results to prop up an argument....yawn.

Yes, it's always the Conservative Party of Canada who miraculously get better results in Ispos-Reid polls, and it's always Ipsos-Reid push-polls that get lot's of front page attention in ConWest media.

Fortunately the comment section of this propaganda article was quite informing, and it's where I found the "Best Comment of the Day":

David Gay:

"This seems like a monthly ritual. Ipsos-Reid publishes a poll that lavishes the statistical margin of error on the Conservative party: plus five points. The proprietors of Canwest newspapers order the good news to be spread across the front page. More temperate, responsible polls will follow in a few days showing what the real lead is. Darrell Bricker should look for a real job."

Thanks David, you have been nominated for "Best Comment of the Day"!

LINKS
- Norman Spector uses rigged polling numbers to prop up his ridiculous propositions
- I believe that Norman Spector is an overpaid bigot; or is he just one of many hired by CanWest to spread the ConWest propaganda?

No-deficit 'Gordon Campbell is a sociopath', oh, and a liar too.

2009-08-31T20:36:00.022-07:00

Best comment of the day, regarding Gordon Campbell's sudden arts funding cuts :

Jay1237:

"The Campbell liberals lied their way into power. they have consistently lied and mislead about things. there is money for bridges and olympics, tax cuts for the rich and corporations but the regular guy is screwed.
Buddies of Campbell keep getting deals under the table: BC rail, rivers, whatever they like in droves.

Still he smiles for the camera.

[Gordon Campbell] is a sociopathic person.

He is destroying the very inner fabric of society.

He has to go. He is a liar and thief living in luxury. [Colin Hansen] is no better and a mere yes man.

When is health care, education going to be cut. you have lied about everything so far....with a nice smile!"

Well said, Jay! Let's see how the idea of Gordon Campbell being a sociopath holds water when compared to Wikipedia's definition of Sociopath:

Three or more of the following are required:
Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
=> THINK GORDON CAMPBELL INSIDER CORRUPTION CASES (INCLUDING BC RAIL), AND GORDONS DRUNK DRIVING CASE
Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
=> THINK ALL THE FALSE ELECTION PROMISES HE MADE, SUCH AS THE "NO DEFICIT" LIE.
Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
=> THINK GORDON CAMPBELL'S DRUNK DRIVING CASE
Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
=> THINK BUDGET DEFICIT
Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.
=> THINK THE 4 BILLION HST TAX HIKE STEALING FROM THE POOR WHILE INCREASING HIS OWN PAY AND THAT OF HIS POLITICAL AND BIG BUSINESS CRONIES

Wow, that's a significant match.

Congratulations, jay 1237, I couldn't agree more.

Premier Gordon Campbell has been creating room over the past few days for the possibility of a provincial deficit.

While Campbell continues to say he wants to avoid deficits at all costs, the certainty of just a few weeks is clearly gone.

I've written a little about this already, but here are two exchanges that shed some light on the shifting position.

January 27, 2009
Phone interview

Vancouver Sun: Can you clarify your position on the provincial deficit? It seems like for a while you've said there will absolutely be no deficit and I'm not hearing that as strongly from you now.

Premier Gordon Campbell: I think that's fair to say. We've got twin commitments: one is to a balanced budget, which is critical, but a balanced budget where we protect healthcare and education spending the things that are critical for British Columbians.

So when you have economies that are effectively falling off, when you have revenues that are in free fall it's very difficult to see how you make that equation work...

VS: So it is possible we will run a deficit?

GC: I'm not saying that. We're trying to do our best to see how we can handle all of this, with all of the information. Every piece is moving right now and it's a big challenge to find a way to make this work to protect healthcare and education.

October 22, 2008
Meeting with a group of reporters after the economic update

Lindsay Kines, Victoria Times Colonist: If things get even worse globally, are you willing to ever run a deficit?

Premier Gordon Campbell: Let me be very clear, we are not going to run a deficit in the province of British Columbia.

LK: Ever?

GC: Let's just be clear, Lindsay, when we talk about, when you talk about a deficit, or anyone talks about a deficit, they're talking about turning their back on the next generation and sending our problems forward to them.

I think one of the things that British Columbians are very clear on is they expect us to think about the generations that will follow us. We've just spent seven years digging ourselves out of an enormous debt hole that was created by deficit after deficit after deficit. I do not accept that we should have deficits. We don't need to run deficits, we actually need to run a strong healthy economy and government should always live within its means.

iPods and iPhones explode; Enjoy!

2009-08-28T11:56:00.006-07:00

Apple is getting worried about exploding iPhones and iPods. Read this:

Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child’s iPod exploded and the family sought a refund from the company.
The Times has learnt that the company would offer the family a full refund only if they were willing to sign a settlement form. The proposed agreement left them open to legal action if they ever disclosed the terms of the settlement.

Nice one, Apple!

And this one about an iPhone:

A 15-year old Belgian by the name of Salvatore is the latest victim in a series of mysterious iPhone explosions that have captured the attention of France’s and the European Commissions’ consumer affair watchdogs.

[The] teenager was holding his iPhone in his hand, about to make a call, when the iPhone suddenly ‘imploded’. The incident didn’t cause any serious injuries but reportedly gave Salvatore a headache for a couple of days.

UPDATE

Apple is more concerned than ever. Look who was visiting this blog:

IP Address

17.246.49.# (APPLE COMPUTER)

ISP

APPLE COMPUTER

Location

Continent	:	North America
Country	:	United States (Facts)
State	:	California
City	:	Cupertino
Lat/Long	:	37.3042, -122.0946 (Map)

Language

English (U.S.)
en-us

Operating System

Macintosh MacOSX

Browser

Safari 1.3
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9

Javascript

version 1.5

Monitor

Resolution

1440 x 900

LINKS

- TechCrunch: iPhone explodes; fun!
- TimesOnline: iPod explodes; fun!

TN!s of the Week: Bob and Mike Wasylyshen, Edmonton Police

2009-08-19T12:19:00.009-07:00

It took almost seven years, but there seems to be some movement in the 2002 Bob and Mike Wasylyshen Taser Kids for fun case:

[Mike Wasylyshen, the] Edmonton police constable who Tasered a passed-out teen in 2002 and avoided punishment from the police chief of the day--his father [Bob Wasylyshen] --will likely now have to face a disciplinary hearing.

Great, well done, Mike. And you too, Bob, for supporting taser use on drunk kids. What a hell of father you make!

In a ruling last week, the Law Enforcement Review Board ordered Police Chief Mike Boyd to lay several charges against Const. Mike Wasylyshen related to the Oct. 5, 2002, incident in which 16-year-old Randy Fryingpan was Tasered eight times in about one minute.
Fryingpan was passed out drunk in the back of a car that police were called to investigate. Everyone in the vehicle, except Fryingpan, got out when police ordered them, and Fryingpan was Tasered.

Not so cool, Mike, but let's not forget who thought that what Mike was doing was "all fine": indeed, his own father Bob Wasylyshen.

The then Edmonton Chief Bob Wasylyshen had plenty of reason for disciplining his son; the Law Enforcement Review Board:

1. Mike deployed his Taser on (Fryingpan) eight times in the span of 68 seconds, in what appeared to be an effort to remove the passed-out youth from the vehicle

2. No evidence was presented to justify the use of a Taser; nor was any evidence presented to explain why the Taser was deployed eight times in just over a minute

Congrats, Bob and Mike Wasylyshen, you both are Taser Nazis of the Week!

UPDATE:

Mike Wasylyshen doesn't only Taser 16-year old kids, oh no, he also loves beating up people on crutches:

[Mike] Wasylyshen had been out drinking with some other officers at a bar on Whyte Avenue (Edmonton) in December 2005 and had become very drunk.
At about 2:30 in the morning, he left the club and spotted Devin Stacey, who was hailing a cab across the street. Stacey had just had knee surgery and was using crutches to get around.

Crown prosecutor Marta Juzwiak told the court [Mike] Wasylyshen started yelling and berating the 22-year-old man, and called him a "cripple". He then ran across the street and punched Stacey in the ear, and moments later struck a security guard who was trying to stop the altercation that had broken out.

Wow! And this jerk is still working for the police? What's wrong with the Edmonton Police?

In an interview with CBC News on Thursday afternoon, [Devin] Stacey said he thinks Wasylyshen should no longer be a member of the force.

"If you're a cop and you assault someone, especially on Whyte Avenue, you shouldn't be able to be a cop anymore," he said.

Well said, Devin!

LINKS

- Edmonton Sun
- Calgary Herald
- CBC: When Mike has been drinking he will beat up crippled people too.

Former Israeli head of Shin Beth, Ami Ayalon, charged of torture practises.

2009-08-19T08:19:00.007-07:00

The former head of the Israeli security service Shin Beth is being prosecuted on charges of torture in the Netherlands. The case is in front of the The Hague courts tomorrow. That is the commitment of a case tomorrow, when the Court in Den Haag.

Torture
The indictment comes from Palestinian Chalid Al Shami after his torture charges were considered unfounded by an Israeli court. Human Rights Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld is taking on the case for Chalid Al Shami. The Israeli Ami Ayalon was at this time head of the Israeli secret service Shin Beth and would be responsible for the torture.

more...

LINK
- NOVA: Nederland moet Israelische oudminister vervolgen (dutch)

Best comment of the day: BC HST is good for corporations, bad for the rest of us

2009-08-08T17:23:00.003-07:00

This from "blurredbyitall":

What Hansen should have said was that $1.9 billion of the corporate sector's share of paying for public services and infrastructure (that they use too) will be loaded onto already-overburdened BC citizens/taxpayers. The Liberal's communications machine will be cranking out spin til we drown in it.

Yes, that's the best way to sum the BC HST up. Read all the comments here:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/08/07/bc-statistics-canada-unemployment-hansen.html#socialcomments

LINKS
- CBC: Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals are flirting with the rich and fucking the rest of us, again.

Braidwood Taser Inquiry missed opportunity

2009-08-03T08:02:00.005-07:00

At least someone got it right on the Braidwood Taser Inquiry, and this time it's nobody less than Emile Therien, past president of the Canada Safety Council. In short, he argues that there currently are no standards when it comes to the use of tasers in Canada, and that this is inexcusable. Emile suggests that a moratorium should be put on the purchase of new tasers.

I like to go one step further. Given all the "un-explainable" deaths soon after being tasered, Braidwood should have put a moratorium on the use of tasers until country-wide standards are in place, and that ALL tasers (those in use and those scheduled to be acquired) proof to comply to these standards:

Taser inquiry missed opportunity

Jul 31, 2009 04:30 AM

Re: Lessons learned in Taser tragedy, Editorial July 27
In failing to recommend that standards be developed for Tasers, the Braidwood inquiry, unfortunately, has squandered an outstanding opportunity to move this agenda that much more forward. The federal government, as recommended in an RCMP report, must now take the initiative and set standards for Tasers used by all police services in Canada, under its power in the Criminal Code to regulate firearms. Standards for their efficacy and use must be developed.
The fact, acknowledged by the manufacturer, is that one in 20 of these devices fail. This failure rate defies all logic, is inexcusable and smacks of shoddy manufacturing and quality control. No other electrical product can be legally sold in Canada unless it is tested and certified by a recognized national standards organization.
Until these standards are in place, police services should place a moratorium on the purchase of these electrical devices. Establishing minimum standards would further ensure police accountability and allay public fears and concerns.
Emile Therien, Past President, Canada Safety Council, Ottawa

LINKS
- Toronto Star: Taser inquiry missed opportunity
- Canada Safety Council

Two German nuclear power plants have been shut down due to safety concerns

2009-07-24T12:01:00.005-07:00

Nuclear safety problems in Germany:

The nuclear power in Lingen Emsland and Phillipsburg 2 in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany) are due to technical problems have been turned off. [..] The plants in Krümmel and Biblis A and B in Hesse are also inoperative.

Links:
- Google Translate: The nuclear power plants in Lingen Emsland and Phillipsburg 2 in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany) have been turned off
- Focus Online (Original Item, German): Atomkraft: Werke Lingen und Phillipsburg 2 abgeschaltet

Filesharing 2.0 (video)

2009-07-14T16:00:00.001-07:00

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

Noam Chomsky on “Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours” (video)

2009-07-03T13:37:00.003-07:00

Watch this fascinating view on "the crises". Noam Chomsky at his best:

Economic Meltdown 101 - Peter Schiff explains the credit crunch in plain English (video)

2009-07-02T21:10:00.005-07:00

Grab a beer and watch this to learn about bubbles, dot com crash, credit crunch, the World's biggest Ponzi scheme, and more:

The unholy Ipsos Reid + CanWest alliance; junk-polls and media bias shaping Canadian opinion.

2009-06-28T12:15:00.050-07:00

Paul from Paulitics has revealed that Ipsos Reid has been releasing numbers with a pro-Conservative bias. Well, I hate to say it, but bias stemming from illegitimate polling practises and media bias is everywhere. Take one of the latest Ipsos Reid polls, just as an example. Respondents were asked the following question:

(a) Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are doing a good job of managing the issues that are most important to Canadians (b) and should continue to govern.

1. Junk Poll: Misleading question (read it here).

The above is a classic misleading question (actually, it's not even a question...). The technical term for a such a misleading polling question is double-barreled question, one of the "Top 10 Ways to Get Misleading Poll Results"

How it works

John Wright and his conservative buddies (a.k.a Ipsos Reid Canada) know quite well that Canadians “don't want an election” (68% of respondents don't want an election, June 2-4 Ipsos Reid poll). It appears that Ipsos Reid Canada used this information to craft a double-barrelled question in order to confuse respondents and get a more positive result on an on itself perfectly legitimate question (that should have been asked in the first place):

Do you agree that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are doing a good job of managing the issues that are most important to Canadians?

But by adding the b part ("and should continue to govern" = avert an election) Ipsos Reid seems to have been aiming at those 68% of respondents that don't want an election, hoping that at least some of them would respond more positive to the question as a whole

“I don't want an election (b) so therefore I still “somewhat agree” with the question as a whole (a+b).”

And by putting this part into the latter half of the question, Ipsos Reid is giving the b part some extra weight too. Bruce Grundy explains:

If you ask a double barrelled question [..] you will almost certainly not get answers to all the matters raised. Usually, only the last point will be dealt with.
- Bruce Grundy, "So you want to be a journalist?".

Perfect!

2. Junk-results: Misleading, again, and again.

The results of the misleading poll question were as follows:

Strongly agrees (20%)
Somewhat agrees (34%)

I don't have access to the full results of the poll (update below) but given the likeliness that this poll was in the 'Strongly Agree', 'Somewhat Agree/Somewhat Disagree', 'Strongly Disagree' format, it's probably safe to assume that the rest of the respondents (46%) either strongly disagreed with the statement or has no opinion (or were offended by the biased question and therefore not answering).

Let's assume the following:

31% strongly disagree
15% no opinion/offended

Logic also teaches us that if a person somewhat agrees (34%), they also somewhat disagree, right?

Then we can conclude that also the presentation of the results is misleading. From the results above, it would be just as well to conclude that an overwhelming majority of Canadians agree (strongly 31%, somewhat 34% - totalling 65% !!) that Stephen Harper is doing a bad job, right?

3. Junk-Journalism: Misleading, again, and again, and again.

While Ipsos Reid is happy to supply misleading results from a flawed polling practise, CanWest uses these faulty results to push an even more positive image onto Conservative Party.

Here's a good example how CanWest misrepresents the already flawed poll:

(1) Harper has the edge, however, with half (54%) of those polled saying he should continue to govern. (2) Five in 10 (54%) Canadians agreed Harper is doing a good job of managing the country while four in 10 Canadians agreed Ignatieff would do better. - italic inserts mine

Indeed, both (1) and (2) are first order fallacies because one cannot make these assumptions based on a single double-barrelled polling question.

Fallacy explained
Let me explain this with a simple example:

Jan (15) was asked to respond to the following statement:
(a) I dislike my current math teacher and (b) she can drop dead.
Yes, you've got it right, this is also a double-barrelled statement!

Let's assume that Jan doesn't like her math teacher. Let's also assume that Jan is not the hateful type either (even towards her math teacher that she really dislikes); then what is she supposed to answer?
Obviously she's NOT going to choose "strongly agree" because she doesn't dislike people in that (b) way . She's also NOT going to choose "strongly disagree" because she really dislikes her teacher. It's therefore quite likely she will choose "Somewhat agree" given the fact she really dislikes the teacher (a).
The example above shows that, although Jan does not have a deathwish for her math teacher, she might as well have chosen "somewhat agree". So how could someone take the "somewhat agree" as evidence that she has a deathwish for her teacher?

What we are dealing with here is fallacy of distribution. Jan's "somewhat agree" to the full answer can not be translated to a "somewhat agree" to the single parts (in this case the death-wish) of the statement, as shown above.

Back to our Ipsos Reid/CanWest poll and "analysis"
All that we can know for sure is that only 20 percent agreed to the full a+b question: we can only speculate on the other 80% due to the confusing and misleading double barrelled question.

It's very likely there are many people like Jan among the respondents of the Ipsos Reid poll who fully agreed with one part of the question (b part, to avert an election) , but not so much with the other part (a part, Harper and Cons do a "good job").

4. Conclusion
The unholy alliance of Ispos Reid and CanWest is good for some good laughs, but their polling (Ipsos Reid) and journalism (CanWest) practises presented in my examples are clearly and severely flawed. The confusing polling question (Ipsos Reid) in combination with the flawed analysis (CanWest) appear to have been designed to inflate support for the Conservative Party and deflate criticism of the current government: hard to fully proof, but I'll let you decide.

5. Recommendation
You think this example is an exception to the rule? Think again. I see this kind of junk polling in combination with junk-journalism EVERYWHERE in the Canadian press.

The best thing to do is to ignore all polls and stop reading the corporate media/press: it's junk. I've given up cable TV and newspaper subscription a long time ago, and I advice you to do the same. Please support the CBC for a more objective and unbiased presentation of Canadian news.

UPDATE

I noticed this post which is helping me out with the missing date:

A majority (53%) of Canadians ‘agree’ (20% strongly/34% somewhat) that ‘Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are doing a good job of managing the issues that are most important to Canadians and should continue to govern’. On the other hand, four in ten (43%) ‘disagree’ (23% strongly/21% somewhat) that this is the case.

It now looks like the poll was in the following format, and the numbers read as follows:

'Strongly Agree' (20%), 'Somewhat Agree (34%), Somewhat Disagree' (21%), 'Strongly Disagree' (23%)

Even if we accept these latest poll numbers as being legit results, then one can only conclude (and even this can be questioned) that there are more people disagreeing (23%) with both parts of the statement than agreeing (20%) ! All others respondents appear to be highly confused how to answer the question.

Furthermore, if Ipsos-Reid/CanWest is allowed to misrepresent the facts, then Getting it Right (GIR) feels fully entitled to do the same. The actual results with an explanation by GIR:

Strongly Agree (20%) - Okay, these people seem to support the Conservatives regardless of the stupid question.

Somewhat Agree (34%) - Logic will explain that people who somewhat agree (opposed to those who "strongly agree") also "somewhat disagree" with the statement, right? Right!

Somewhat Disagree (21%) - These bunch are as confused as the ones above, but they surely "somewhat disagree" too.

Strongly Disagree (23%) - The ones that clearly don't support the Cons and really don't mind election either.

6. Do the math and make your own headline:

Math:
20% agree, 78% disagree (23% strongly disagree, 52% somewhat disagree)

Headline:
Large majority (78%) of Canadians disapprove of Stephen Harper and his cronies and want elections now!

I feel great being so creative with flawed polling numbers!

Footnote:
Q: What's more flawed than an Ipsos Reid Poll?
A: Tons of them!

LINKS
- What is John Wright reading when he's not blogging, or, double-barrelled polling questions are misleading and should be avoided
- Ipsos junk poll using double-barrelled polling question - so much for credible polling
- Be warned if you dare to critisize us, because John Wright (vice president Ipsos) is ready to sue you too.
- National Post + Ipsos alliance: Canadians don't want an election right now
- Paulitics: "I'm John Wright from Ipsos Reid", or "why the recession has given me more time to piss off other bloggers"
- We at CanWest love the polls from Ipsos. They are so well crafted. We especially love results from double-barrelled question since those numbers can be used so easily to mislead our reader
- Wikipedia: Fallacy of distribution

FULL CANWEST ARTICLE

OTTAWA — Conservative and Liberal MPs united Friday to pass a government confidence vote — averting a tight summer election, which a new poll shows very few Canadians wanted.

Conservative and Liberal MPs voted 214-82 against the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois to ensure passage of government budgetary spending estimates, and to set the stage for a Liberal confidence motion during the week of Sept. 28 that could trigger a November election.

An Ipsos Reid poll for Canwest News Service and Global National found 60 per cent of Canadians do not want a summer election, though half agree Parliament is not working. It found a statistical tie of 35 per cent for the Liberals and 34 per cent for the Conservatives, but a large gap in favour of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper over Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in who can best manage the issues facing the country.

After a week of high political drama, ending with NDP and Bloc MPs accusing the Liberals of propping up Harper's government and abandoning the unemployed, MPs headed back to their constituencies for a three-month recess and preparations for a potential fall campaign.

The poll of 1,000 adults found a tie in vote-rich Ontario, too, with the Liberals at 40 per cent and the Conservatives at 38 per cent.

Harper has the edge, however, with half of those polled saying he should continue to govern. Five in 10 Canadians agreed Harper is doing a good job of managing the country, while four in 10 Canadians agreed Ignatieff would do better.

The survey was taken June 16-18 as Harper negotiated an agreement with Ignatieff to allay a Liberal threat to defeat the government Friday if he did not respond to concerns about unemployment, stimulus spending, the deficit and the isotopes shortage. The poll is accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The poll found 53 per cent of Canadians agree Parliament is not working.

At the same time, Quebec stands as the only province where a slight majority of 52 per cent wants an election to clear the air.

In Quebec, the Bloc maintains a lead of 38 per cent, followed by 33 per cent for the Liberals, 16 per cent for the Conservatives, seven per cent for the New Democratic Party and four per cent for the Green Party.

The Harper-Ignatieff deal established a working group of Conservative and Liberal MPs and officials to study two potential employment-insurance reforms. One would allow self-employed Canadians to participate in the program. The other would establish a uniform eligibility rule to collect benefits, replacing a patchwork of requirements that are linked to regional unemployment rates.

During debate before the votes, NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs blasted the Liberals for withdrawing their support for a long-standing NDP-Bloc call to lower the minimum number of hours required for EI benefits to 360 from 420. Ignatieff pulled that from the table on the eve of talks with Harper.

"I know we're going to meet people who've now run out of their EI insurance and are going to fall off into extreme poverty this summer, and the unemployment rates seem to be still rising, so it's going to be a tough summer," NDP Leader Jack Layton told reporters.

TN! of the week: Helen Roberts, Federal Government Lawyer at the Braidwood Inquiry

2009-06-19T11:15:00.013-07:00

Who would have thought the Braidwood inquiry would take such a major turn "before" closing arguments ?

Today it was revealed that a crucial email was "overlooked" by the legal team representing the Government of Canada.

In the now partly disclosed email, Supt. Dick Bent writes to an RCMP Assistant Commissioner that the four officers responsible for the killing of Dziekanski "had discussed [their] response en route [to the airport,] that if [Dziekanski] did not comply that they would go to [use the taser]".

This appears to contradict earlier made statements by the four officers; they all testified in court that no discussion on how to respond had taken place prior to entering the airport.

Sounds like signs of cover-up to me.

Helen Roberts apologized today for the "overlooked" email from Bent, but, for someone who has been following this inquiry closely, I find it very hard to believe that such a damning email can so easily be overlooked; of course this legal team wanted to protect the government and its subsidiaries from blame, and given they were the single collector of government dossiers they had the intend, means and the opportunity.

Taser-Nazi of the Week
However appalling the above might read to you, it's not the sole reason why Helen Roberts got nominated for being the Taser-Nazi of the Week. After all, my explanation is still nothing more than speculation on WHY she and her team "overlooked" such a crucial email.

Neither did she get nominated for breaking out in tears: these are stressful times for everyone involved, including Helen Roberts and her Mounties.

What got her nominated was the content of her tearful explanation. She simply kept in line with her "old" narrative, propping up the cops's version of the truth that they never had any conversation about how to respond before getting to the airport, and that Bent was, how did she put that again, simply "mistaken."

A mistake, that explains it, right?

Helen Roberts, dismissing crucial evidence as a "mistake" while withholding this highly contradictory evidence coming from a top RCMP brass has gotten you nominated for Taser-Nazi of the week.

Congratulations!

UPDATE 1: This post called "Canada: Cover-up of RCMP murder of immigrant worker unravels" on the World Socialist website should not be missed

UPDATE 2: I agree with Vancouver Sun's conclusion of the column Mounties in Tasering should face prosecution: "That was not an "oversight." It was professional incompetence or a cover-up."

More Police Brutality in Victoria "the best place to live" British Columbia

2009-06-18T08:24:00.005-07:00

The Victoria Police Department is at it again: police brutality rocks!

A Victoria police rookie constable used excessive force against two intoxicated people held in police cells, an internal investigation found.

[An] internal investigation launched by the department found the officer abused his authority and neglected his duty under the B.C. Police Act. He was suspended for five days without pay and is now back to work.

Sure, excessive force is fine, let's get back to work, Arbeit macht frei, nicht?

The officer's [use of excessive force was] not deemed criminal, [...] and neither of the two people roughed up in the cells suffered permanent injury.

There we go again, the police policing themselves, of course then it's not "criminal".

This was the third allegation of police [brutality] in police cells made public in the last two years.

I told you, Victoria really is the best place to live! Join the force, beat up some people, and get away with it!

Victoria teen Willow Kinloch successfully sued the department last year after she was tethered and restrained while drunk in a police cell in 2005. The complaint commissioner recently announced a full public inquiry into the matter.
A police complaint hearing determined Victoria police Const. Greg Smith used unnecessary force when he pushed handcuffed Camosun college student Thomas McKay head-first to a concrete floor. McKay struck his head and was permanently brain-damaged after the April 2004 incident.

That's unfortunate, not everybody seems to get away with it. I'm sure Greg feels very sorry about it all.

The abuse-of-force cases led to changes in police cells, including upgrading cameras and posting a sergeant to provide full-time supervision of prisoners.

Yeah, that obviously helped a lot.

LINK
- We beat up people for a living

Internal probe finds cop used excessive force

Two intoxicated people roughed up by rookie in Victoria police cells

By Katie Derosa, Times ColonistJune 18, 2009

A Victoria police rookie constable used excessive force against two intoxicated people held in police cells, an internal investigation found.

Police have released few details about the October incident but an internal investigation launched by the department found the officer abused his authority and neglected his duty under the B.C. Police Act. He was suspended for five days without pay and is now back to work.

The officer's actions were not deemed criminal, however, and neither of the two people roughed up in the cells suffered permanent injury. Police would not identify the officer but said he has been with the force for two years.

Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham announced the investigation in January after reviewing the video surveillance footage and discussing the matter with the police complaint commissioner.

Victoria police spokesman Sgt. Grant Hamilton would not return calls for comment.

This was the third allegation of police wrongdoing in police cells made public in the last two years.

Victoria teen Willow Kinloch successfully sued the department last year after she was tethered and restrained while drunk in a police cell in 2005. The complaint commissioner recently announced a full public inquiry into the matter.

A police complaint hearing determined Victoria police Const. Greg Smith used unnecessary force when he pushed handcuffed Camosun college student Thomas McKay head-first to a concrete floor. McKay struck his head and was permanently brain-damaged after the April 2004 incident.

McKay settled a lawsuit with the city for an undisclosed amount.

The abuse-of-force cases led to changes in police cells, including upgrading cameras and posting a sergeant to provide full-time supervision of prisoners.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Geert Wilders' anti-EU party biggest election winner in Dutch European Elections

2009-06-05T22:47:00.004-07:00

Radio Netherlands

The biggest winners in Thursday's European Parliament elections in the Netherlands are the two most outspoken parties: Geert Wilders' nationalist anti-EU party and the firmly pro-EU social-liberal party D66.

Fielding candidates for the first time, Mr Wilders' staunchly anti-European party will be returning four of the 25 Dutch MEPs. The other winners are social-liberal D66 and Green Left, both of whom are firm advocates of the European Union; each will send three MEPs to Brussels.

The Freedom Party MEPs will be headed by Barry Madlener; Mr Wilders will remain an MP in The Hague. The Freedom Party has ruled out joining any of the existing multi-party factions in the EP. In his victory speech, Mr Madlener repeated he will go for "less Europe, more Netherlands, Turkey never an EU member".

Listen to the reactions of senior Dutch politicians and party leaders to the European parliamentary election results (See below for details of the politicians featured in the report*)

Given the size of the European Parliament - it has 736 seats - it remains doubtful whether the Freedom Party will manage to make its mark, all by itself. That's a worrying scenario, Amsterdam politicologist André Krouwel told RNW's Perro de Jong:

"I'm afraid that all the people who pinned their hopes on Wilders and who did so in earnest may once again get the feeling that they are not being understood, and that their problems are not being taken seriously. It may cause them to become disillusioned with the political system forever."

"Yes" to EU wins too
Voters rejected the other parties' two-faced approach of a "no" to the Brussels bureaucracy, but a "yes" to the European ideals. They voted either for the Freedom Party's "no", or for the outspoken "yes" of the other outright winner, social-liberal D66. The rejuvenated liberals even centred their campaign around their pro-European position, and tripled their following. EU-friendly ecology party Green Left, too, managed to gain an extra seat.

National effect
Formally the elections have no repercussions on national politics, but the vote is generally seen as a nationwide opinion poll on the performance of the Dutch government and opposition in The Hague. Emphasising that his party was now the country's second biggest in terms of voter share, Geert Wilders was quick to claim that the results are a call on the government to step down.

Opinion polls had been predicting that Mr Wilders' PVV would become the country's biggest party if general elections were held now. As it happens, in Thursday's EU elections the party narrowly failed to dethrone the Christian Democrats as the country's largest party.

The three parties that form the governing coalition together lost 6 of their 16 MEPs. The biggest blow was administered to Labour, the big loser in the contest, which was more than halved, from 7 to 3 seats. The Christian Democrats lost 2 of their 7 seats.

The third coalition partner, small Christian Union, remained stable at two seats, as did opposition Socialist Party. Opposition conservative VVD, which had feared being leeched by Mr Wilders' party, lost just one of its four seats.

Wait till Sunday
The final results of the Europe-wide elections will not be known until Sunday evening, when voting has been completed in all EU member states. Contravening Brussels' preferences, the Netherlands is not witholding the election results until Sunday. The tradition is for the outcome to be published as soon as the votes have been counted.

*Senior Dutch politicians and party leaders responding to the European election results, in the order they feature in the report:

Femke Halsema, leader of the Green Left party in the Dutch parliament
Jack de Vries, deputy defence minister and prominent Christian Democrat
Hans van Balen, Conservative VVD leader for the European election
Harrry van Bommel, Socialist Party MP
Wim van de Camp, Christian Democrat leader for the European election
Femke Halsema
Geert Wilders, Freedom Party leader
Barry Madlener, Freedom Party leader for the European election
Hero Brinkman, Freedom Party MP

The table below summarises the Dutch results, with 92 percent of the votes counted.
Turnout was at 36 percent, slightly below the 40 percent mark of 2004.

EP 2009 election results (old seat count in brackets)

Christian Democrats	5	(7)
Labour	3	(7)
Conservative VVD	3	(4)
Social-liberal D66	3	(1)
GreenLeft	3	(2)
Socialist Party	2	(2)
Christian Union/Dutch Reformed Party	2	(2)
Freedom Party	4	(0)

LINKS
- Geert Wilders winner
- Wikipedia: Geert Wilders

Bill O'Reilly "The Tiller Killer" should be jailed for hate-speech on grounds of inciting violence

2009-06-03T21:43:00.018-07:00

Anyone who's been following my blog knows I'm pretty reluctant to pull the "hate speech" card. Simplified, I believe one only crosses the line when one incites acts of violence. But that's exactly why Bill O'Reilly should be jailed.

I'm not alone:

O'Reilly is being incredibly disingenuous when he claims that he bears no responsibility for others' actions in the killing of Dr. George Tiller on Sunday. When you tell an audience of millions over and over again that someone is an executioner, you cannot feign surprise when someone executes that person.

You cannot claim to hold no responsibility for what other people do when you call for people to besiege Tiller's clinic, as O'Reilly did in January 2008. And this was after Tiller had been shot in both arms and after his clinic had been bombed.

O'Reilly knew that people wanted Tiller dead, and he knew full well that many of those people were avid viewers of his show. Still, he fanned the flames. Every time I appeared on his show, I received vitriolic and hate-filled e-mails. And if I received those messages directly, I can only imagine what type of feedback O'Reilly receives. He knows that his words incite violence.

Thank you, Mary Alice Carr, well said.

PS1: More shocking news about how authorities (including FBI) responded to recent violent acts by Scott Roeder here.

PS2: Old but relevant "news" below:

PS3: More old "news":

PS4: O'Reilly falsely claimed he only "reported what groups" were calling Tiller

PS5: O'Reilly: "If I could get my hands on Tiller [the baby killer]....well, you know....

PS6: Mary Alice Carr in "conversation" with O'Reilly the Tiller Killer

PS7: Bill O'Reilly lying about HOW he used "tiller the baby killer":

LINKS
- Mary Alice Carr - Why I turned down O'Reilly
- Salon.com: O'Reilly's campaign against murdered doctor Tiller
- Democracy Now! More shocking news about Scott Roeder
- Salon.com: Tiller the baby killer

Bill O'Reilly has blood on his hands (video)

2009-06-01T12:24:00.005-07:00

No question [Bill O'Reilly] has blood on his hands.

LINKS:
- Bill O'Reilly killed George Tiller
- Tiller the baby Killer

----------------------------------

Liberal bloggers point finger at Bill O'Reilly in George Tiller's death

It's no secret that Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly was instrumental in publicizing the activities of George Tiller, the 67-year-old Kansas doctor who was one of the few physicians in the country to perform late-term abortions in the face of protests, bombings at Tiller's clinic and death threats.

Tiller was slain over the weekend, as he stood in his church in Wichita, Kan., serving as an usher. President Obama decried the killing, saying, "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence." Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist and former member of a right-wing militia group, has been arrested.

Now, liberal bloggers are speculating that what one called O'Reilly's "jihad against Tiller" may have contributed to the doctor's death.

"There's no other person who bears as much responsibility for the characterization of Tiller as a savage on the loose," said Salon.com's Gabriel Winant. Tiller has been vilified in 29 episodes of O'Reilly's "The Factor," Winant reports, usually described as "Tiller the Baby Killer" and often as a doctor who "destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000."

On March 15, 2006, O'Reilly said Tiller was the moral equivalent of Al Qaeda. On Nov. 9, 2006, he likened the physician who gave women legal abortions to China's Mao, Germany's Hitler or the Soviet Union's Stalin. And on Dec. 12, 2006, he unleashed all his hatred in this episode. See what you think.

The right-wing blogosphere is defending O'Reilly by blaming ... the Obama administration.

John Aravosis, who blogs for AmericaBlog.com, wrote that this was all the president's fault, because the administration withdrew a report warning about abortion protest violence.

Thank God that the Obama administration caved last month to religious right and GOP demands that it withdraw a new domestic terrorism report that indicated, among other things, that radicals might use abortion as a justification for committing acts of domestic terrorism. Now a man is dead, and an American church has been shot up during services. Which leads to the question as to whether the Obama administration plans to do anything about the terrorist threat posed by religious right extremists, or whether typical Democratic spinelessness will lead us to now ignore this brutal murder, since that is the message that was sent last month, just weeks before this act of terror.

For the most part, both pro-choice and anti-abortion groups of the mainstream variety were careful to condemn Tiller's slaying.

But Operation Rescue, which ran a Tiller Watch on its website, called Tiller "a mass murderer." In a statement, the group's founder, Randall Terry, said, “We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God.”

Maybe, as MSNBC's political team suggested this morning, the culture wars are about to return big time.

-- Johanna Neuman

UBC President Stephen Toope and his buddies plagiarized report on "internet piracy"

2009-05-25T14:00:00.019-07:00

Do you support filesharing? Well I do, because I consider filesharing "fair use".

Not so much support is coming from UBC President Stephen Toope, oh no, he and his buddies actually don't like files sharers. That's why he teamed up with the Conference Board of Canada, cooked up a plagiarized report originating from the IIPA ("the primary movie, music, and software lobby group in the U.S."), charged tax payers $15,000.00, and simply put it out there.

And when they got caught plagiarizing, they put out another post (costs, who knows?) full with more cooked up disinformation. But Micheal Geist, a Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa, struck back.

And so did his readers.

Some comments were made on the sites mentioned, that I'm happy :) to reproduce:

The sweet irony
"How deliciously ironic: they are presenting a plagiarized paper at a conference devoted to Intellectual Property."

Indeed, it's only illegal of course when students do it. When Stephen and his buddies do it, you defend plagiarism to the bitter end.

Sarcasm, I LOVE sarcasm:

Credibility?
"Is it really plagiarism, given that these backgrounders/"studies" exist specifically for the purpose of being lightly rewritten and stuffed into reports? It's intellectually dishonest, morally repugnant, lazy, and self-serving, sure... but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and consider this a collaboration, a partnership, a mutually-beneficial self-serving relationship, rather than plagiarism, which is such an ugly word with that hard "g" and that long "a". Of course, in that case the lobby group's name really should be on the report as co-author, which I daresay would more accurately reflect reality anyway..."

Good point. There's little chance that the US lobby group will be complaining about this type of "file sharing"; that's what the IIPA's report is supposed to be used for. Oh, and what about ripping off governments ($15,000) for "recycling" some repugnantly outdated ideologies; isn't that what governments are for?

Last one:

Who, not how
"Let's not forget the real issue here, Darryl et al. It's not just the fact that they plagiarized another's work (changing someone else's words to sound like your own IS plagiarism). Look at WHO they plagiarized: the IIPA - a giant lobby for American big-business copyright interests.

Even ignoring the fact that the report they plagiarized has been highly discredited, thus destroying the credibility of their own paper, how can they possibly claim to be non-partisan while spouting IIPA garbage in their "own words"?"

Excellent point. Copying IIPA propaganda isn't independent: it's garbage.

You don't know Stephen? Here's an introduction:

UPDATE 1:

This blog post on "the deceitful Conference Board of Canada report on the Digital Economy" (did you note the quotation marks, Mr. Toope?) should not be missed: Good for you, Mark!

UPDATE 2:
Also the (Vancouver) Straight.com got some nasty comments on publishing the findings of the now exposed board of Toope and his buddies.

Read their great "journalism" here, but find some of the enlightening comments below:

Seth: More BS from the neocons that brought us Bush, Harpo, and now for the third time Gordo. This is such plain flaming disinformation that I'm surprised it can be printed without setting the paper on fire.

These dudes come up with their numbers assuming all p2p or torrent is illegal and then figure out the value assuming every downloader would buy the product he "stole".

The piracy watch list is more neocon protectionist nonsense out the US and has been debunked in numerous studies.

And Mark got it right:

This report turns out to be just an unquestioning repetition, and in some cases an outright plagiarism, of material by US lobby groups. That's right - a "non-partisan" group that wants us to take it seriously on intellectual property, plagiarizes the material for its own report

see: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4000/125

And so did jeff:

The Conference Board of Canada's Deceptive, Plagiarized Digital Economy Report:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4000/125/

No word from Stephen "Junk-reports" Toope yet.

LINKS
- Michael Geist is my hero - Stephen Toope? Not so much
- Who will teach Stephen Toope about plagiarism? Bad boy! (pdf)
- In the category "you really can't make this stuff up": Anti File sharing report plagiarized
- My name is Stephen Toope, and I approve this not-so independent report (press release).
- Torrent: Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy - from the Conference Board of Canada

CBC ignores fact that FPTP is the main contributor to the disenfranchised-voters phenomena

2009-05-13T22:25:00.011-07:00

from the CBC BC website:

Voter turnout in B.C.'s provincial election hit a record low on Tuesday, with only 50 per cent of eligible voters bothering to vote, a full eight percentage points less than the 58 per cent that voted in 2005.

[...]

Neufeld told CBC News he'll be looking to find out why only half of eligible voters showed up at the polls.

"We're going to be doing a survey," he said Wednesday. "We did a survey after the 2005 election, and a significant number of people, about 44 per cent, the last time we surveyed them, were simply disengaged with the political process and just didn't have an interest in following politics, being involved and being part of the voting process."

Voter turnout has been dropping for years in B.C. In the 1983 provincial election, 70 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

UBC political science professor Fred Cutler said there were other factors at play [...]

"We didn't have people able to separate the two parties easily or separate their leaders," said Cutler.

For instance, the NDP was criticized by many of its traditional environmentalist supporters for wanting to axe the B.C. Liberals' carbon tax, sending a mixed message to voters about where the party stood in the traditional political landscape.

"For a voter who is having that kind of pressure on both sides and can't quite make up his or her mind, it's going to be that little bit harder to get up and make the walk and tick the ballot," said Cutler.

NB:
1) CBC ignores fact that FPTP is the main contributor to the disenfranchised-voters phenomena; even the Fraser Institute knows that!

Don't believe it? Check this out:

2) FPTP wasted the majority of votes in the following ridings: Boundary-Similkameen, Burnaby-Deer Lake (52% wasted), Burnaby-Lougheed (51% wasted), Burnaby North (51% wasted), Cariboo-Chilcotin (52% wasted), Cariboo North (51% wasted), and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

In all the ridings mentioned above (and many, many more) the majority of voters who casted their ballots wasted their time showing up; their vote had no effect, nada, niente, nix, noppes - what a great voting system the FPTP is.

LINKS
- CBC: Voters disenfranchised by FPTP but we at the CBC will need a Neufeld to tell us that a survey is needed to explain why people stay home
- Fraser Institute: Let's fix FPTP with a system that's right for us (hint; it's not the most PR friendly STV)

Jonathan Kay on STV: liar

2009-05-12T09:36:00.012-07:00

How much disinformation can one spread without lying? Well, it seems to be getting harder for Jonathan Kay, the asswhole writing for the junk paper "The Corporate Ghost".

Lie number one:

The STV system was developed by B.C.'s Citizens' Assembly, "an independent, non-partisan assembly of 160 randomly selected British Columbians [...]

STV has been in use long before BC considered it. Wikipedia knows:

The Single transferable vote (STV) [...] was pioneered in Tasmania, Australia, where it has been in constant use in the Tasmanian House of Assembly since [1906].

Lie number two:

Under STV, the tabulation process requires a computer.

If that was the case, then Tasmanians invented the computer in secret, long before anyone else did: while Tasmania's STV is from 1906, the invention of the first computers that most people know of took place in the 1940s. Way to go Tasmania!

Jonathan Kay's convenient lies
Let's face it, Jonathan Kay is nothing more than mouthpiece for the corporate elite in this country. Corporate Canada doesn't like STV because it would be a lot harder to rig the results under STV to the same extend as it can be done under FPTP.

National Post sucks, sucks, sucks!
The fact that the National Post prints Jonathan Kay's "inaccurate" junk should give you enough reason to avoid this paper like the pest. Not to mention that the NP was one once started by one of Canada's most corrupted business magnate (yes, Conrad Black, and he's is in jail too), and currently owned by one of Canada's biggest bigots on Israel's Apartheid issue.

Links
- I'm Jonathan Kay, and I lie for a living
- We are the National Post: Why WOULD we produce sound journalism when selling our personal biases as media is a) far more profitable and b) a lot more fun?

Last pitch for STV (and why it's clearly more proportional than MMP)

2009-05-12T07:35:00.004-07:00

I hope everyone will go out to vote in BC today, especially in favour of STV, because it's the most proportional system available.

Why STV is more proportional than MMP
One major problem with MMP, especially in the way it is used most, is strategic voting.

Under MMP, one makes two votes, one is by the single-winner-method (such as FPTP), the other is for the party.

Especially the FPTP candidate will often be selected strategically (as is currently the case in Canada) to not see one's vote wasted. By definition this vote is NOT a voter's first choice, but the choice the imperfect MMP system forces onto the voter.

It's transferable to beat strategic voting, stupid!
STV does away with strategic voting (this is the main part of the transferable part). One can, with confidence, vote for the person one really wants without being afraid of wasting ones vote by ranking their favourite candidates: their real choice with 1, their strategic choices with 2, 3, and so on. Only in case their favourite does not get elected, their strategic vote kicks in.

The negative effects of strategic voting under MMP are not visible in the Gallagher index, and therefore any claims that STV is less proportional based on the index are false.

Vote for STV
STV is not perfect, no electoral system is. But it's the most proportional electoral system that is compatible with BC's riding based voting system, and, even more important, we can vote for it today.

Now get off your ass, and vote for it!

I want my, I want my, I want my STV

2009-05-11T11:21:00.008-07:00

I apologize to my readers: things have gotten too busy over the last few months and I had little time left for simply staying sane...

Vote for STV
Nevertheless, I do hope everyone in BC will go out to vote tomorrow. This time around I couldn't care less about what party you vote for (they both stink); there's little choice and both major parties running stink. But be sure to vote for STV!

STV It is a far more democratic electoral system that I believe ALL Canadians deserve. And why not have electoral reform start in BC?

Macleans supports STV!
Even Macleans is behind it. Read Andrew Coyne's post here, and the latest supporting post by Macleans here.

Who doesn't support STV?
Hell, I don't know, but must be pretty stupid to not support it. Here's a list of endorsements without end:
http://www.stv.ca/endorsements

Need more info?
Still not sure what STV is about? There is lots to learn here (ready to be downloaded).

Now don't let me down......

Free Trade Fantasies: Softwood Lumber

2009-04-08T12:46:00.005-07:00

From CBC Website:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday he is "disappointed" with the decision of the United States to impose 10 per cent duties on some imports of Canadian softwood lumber.

The duty will go on lumber from Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

An international tribunal in February found that found Canada failed to properly calculate quotas on softwood lumber exports over the first half of 2007. The tribunal ordered Canada to remedy the breach by March 28.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day has offered a payment of $36.7 million US, but the Office of the United States Trade Representative claims it is owed $54.8 million US from the four provinces. (more)

LINKS:
- CBC: Harper is "disappointed"
- Wikipedia: Isn't "free trade" that includes quotas, tarrifs and duties called "protectionism"?

Seizure by taser; available in a store near you (only available to selected States, sorry).

2009-03-16T14:41:00.010-07:00

Tasers are more effective than ever, especially in the "head zone":

Sue Bailey
THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – Stun guns can cause seizures if their tiny electric barbs pierce the scalp and shock the brain, says a new article on the accidental jolting of a police officer.

The unnamed Ontario cop, in his 30s, was chasing a suspected robber when he was hit in the back of the head with a Taser fired by his partner.

Within seconds, the officer collapsed and went into a full-blown seizure – foaming at the mouth – for about a minute, says the article co-written by Toronto neurologist Dr. Richard Wennberg.

[The accident] is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal released Monday.

[...]

"Our report shows that a Taser shot to the head may result in brain-specific complications. It also suggests that seizure should be added to the list of Taser-related adverse events."

What appears to be a rare if not isolated case should serve as a cautionary tale, Wennberg said in an interview, especially as Taser use grows.

"In that [a seizure caused by a taser] hadn't ever been reported before, we felt sort of obligated to report on it in the medical literature so that people would know that for sure this can happen.

"To discharge that amount of electrical current in a region overlying the brain, it didn't seem impossible to me that this could happen in a mechanism similar to giving electroconvulsive therapy or something like that."

Wennberg says stun guns pack about the same jolt used to induce seizures in electroshock therapy. [...]

The police officer came out of his seizure bewildered and with a severe headache. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, likely from the impact of the dart or from hitting his head after collapsing. He still suffers headaches and has difficulty concentrating 18 months later, Wennberg said.

He has not had any seizures since. [...]

"Taser International is aware of a few incidents during training in which an officer experienced a seizure following a hit by a Taser device."

Those incidents were not written up in medical reports. But the company's document 'Product Warnings: Law Enforcement' clearly warns against targeting sensitive areas such as the head and further states that the risk of a seizure "may be heightened if electrical stimuli or current passes through the head region." [...]

"They certainly don't mean for these things to ever be aimed at the head – nor was it meant to be in this case even. But it wouldn't always have to be an accident. I'd be surprised if (a seizure) didn't happen most of the time to people if they actually did get Tasered in the head."

Taser International has steadfastly defended the relative safety of its devices although it stresses that no use-of-force tool is risk-free.

More than 20 Canadians have died after being Tasered. [...]

LINKS:
- Toronto Star: Tasers can cause seizures
- Canadian Medical Association Journal: Generalized tonic-clonic seizure after taser shot to head (pdf)
- BestStunGun.com Tasers are effective WHEREVER you aim for! No Permit Needed and On Sale for only $399!!!

I Don't Want To Live On A Street

2009-03-09T21:45:00.001-07:00

LINKS
- Vancouver Sun: Songwriters write ode after Taser death

TN! of the week: RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington:

2009-03-02T23:33:00.012-08:00

Plenty of reasons why Kwesi Millington is the receiver of the Taser-Nazi of the Week nomination.

The most obvious ones:

1. "A bulletproof vest, handgun, baton and pepper spray were not enough to quell the fear RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington says he felt when confronted by Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski [who was holding a stapler] during a fatal October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport."

2.Without any warning Constable Kwesi Millington fired the taser at Robert Dziekanski, who, according to a scared Kwesi Millington, was making a threating gesture with a stapler toward one of the other three officers.

3. As a reaction to this "fluid" situation Kwesi did not taser Dziekanski once, not twice, no, Kwesi tasered "the subject" another four times AFTER it had fallen down on the floor from the excruciating pain from the first taser deployment.

4. Throughout the Braidwood hearing Mr. Millington's initial explanation continuously contradicted the Pritchard video, which seems nothing short of a cover up. The (a) yelling of Dziekanski, the (b) raising high of the stapler, (c) not functioning of the taser, (d) number of deployments of the taser, (e) even the intensions of Mr. Dziekanski (why Dziekanski walked to his luggage when asked for his passport and identification), they were all proven wrong by the video or other evidence presented at he inquiry.

What was it that Abraham Lincoln had to say about long strings of lies and cover-ups?

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Kwesi, you are the Taser-Nazi of the Week.

Congratulations!

LINKS
- Globe and Mail: "He was carrying a weapon and all four of us were only in our underwear"
- Dawg's Blawg: Braidwood to show us the obvious: the RCMP defeated by a single amateur video

TN! of the Week: Charles Momy, President Canadian Police Association

2009-02-24T12:05:00.011-08:00

This is what got Charles Momy nominated:

The bottom line is that [tasers] saves lives," said Charles Momy, president of [the Canadian Police Association].

Repeating misinformed corporate mantra's has got you nominated for Taser-Nazi of the week.

Congratulations!

Footnote: Do you want to nominate someone for Taser-Nazi of the week? Then leave your suggestion in the comment box.

Thank you.

LINKS:
- CBC: All Officers need Tasers
- Taser-Nazi of the Week
- New to Taser-Nazi?

The World's Most Wanted Terrorists and War Criminals are White and American

2009-02-20T22:54:00.006-08:00

America's Most wanted terrorists and war criminals:

Dick Cheney
Age: 67
Occupation: Vice President of the United States
Aliases: Big Time, Satan, the President
Remarks: Goes hiding in “undisclosed locations” during times of crises. Shot friend in the face with a shotgun.
Caution: Wanted for being the key architect of the Iraq War, which runs counter to the United Nations Charter’s prohibition on the use of armed force except in self-defense. Responsible for approving torture techniques and the illegal detention of prisoners in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. Subverted democracy, ignored the Geneva Conventions and unleashed crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan. Should be considered armed and dangerous.

George W. Bush
Age: 62
Occupation: President of the United States
Aliases: Dubya, the Vice President
Remarks: Used family prestige to avoid combat in Vietnam. Won the 2000 presidential election even though he lost the popular vote. Considered a puppet of neoconservative strategists.
Caution: Responsible for approving torture techniques against prisoners of war. Authorized the violations of rights of individuals under the American Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Should be considered armed but not dangerous.

Donald Rumsfeld
Age: 76
Occupation: Former Secretary of Defense
Aliases: Rummy, the Procrastinator
Remarks: Forged a close relationship with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War (provided him with intelligence, hardware and strategic advice). Had Hussein killed two decades later for crimes committed during Iran-Iraq War.
Caution: Key architect of Iraq War. Authorized torture techniques at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Breached Geneva Conventions by approving the extrajudicial execution of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives anywhere in the world.

John Ashcroft
Age: 66
Occupation: Former Attorney General of the United States
Aliases: Chicken Legs, the Surfer
Remarks: Lost the 2000 Missouri Senate election to a dead man. Key supporter of the USA Patriot Act, which drastically curtailed the rights and freedoms of Americans.
Caution: Authorized the use of abuse against prisoners of war in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. Approved the use of waterboarding against terrorism suspects.

LINKS
- AdBusters.org : War Criminals - Most Wanted

Widely posted New York Post cartoons show how racist North America really is

2009-02-19T22:37:00.011-08:00

Who remembers the Muhammad cartoons? I do. Then none of the major news outlets in North America were willing to publicize the cartoons. Reason? Respecting religious views; the cartoonsy were supposedly too offensive.

Fast forward 3.5 years, and then check this out (click picture for larger version):

Fortunately I'm not the only person (video) offended by the "Obama is a mad monky that deserves to die" cartoon, and the New York Post has now apologized for the cartoon, sort of.

I can somewhat understand that a right-wing tabloid newspaper makes "the mistake" of printing a racist cartoon. But considering the fact that none of the major news outlets in North America published the Mohammad cartoons, should they then not do the same with the offensive monkey-Obama cartoon by not publishing it?

Apparently not:
New York Times, LA Times, CNN, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Kansas City Star, Fox, Washington Times, Associated Press, CBC - SHAME ON YOU for your inconsistency when it comes to publicizing offensive cartoons.

How do you think the black community feels when they see one of their own being depicted as a monkey that deserves to be murdered by white policemen? Don't you think blacks can feel offended? Where's the respect for coloured people? Where's the consistency here?

Obviously North America is still a racist continent, one in which religion deserves far more respect than black people.

Surprised? anyone?

California, richest state, almost broke

2009-02-17T21:28:00.003-08:00

LOS ANGELES — The state of California — its deficits ballooning, its lawmakers intransigent and its governor apparently bereft of allies or influence — appears headed off the fiscal rails.

Since the fall [...] the state has fallen into deeper financial straits, with more bad news coming daily from Sacramento. The state, nearly out of cash, has laid off scores of workers and put hundreds more on unpaid furloughs. It has stopped paying counties and issuing income tax refunds and halted thousands of infrastructure projects.

Twenty-thousand layoff notices will go out on Tuesday morning, Matt David, the communications director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Monday night. “In the absence of a budget we need to realize this savings and the process takes six months,” Mr. David said.

After negotiating nonstop from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday night on a series of budget bills that would have closed a projected $41 billion deficit, state lawmakers failed to get enough votes to close the deal and adjourned.

More here.

LINK
- New York Times: California, Almost Broke, Nears Brink
- Democracy Now! Layoff Notices for 20,000 California Workers Sent Out

Pirate Bay wins first half of intellectual protectionism trial in Sweden

2009-02-17T14:59:00.006-08:00

From the Local - Sweden

Håkan Roswall, the prosecutor in the trial of the men behind the popular file sharing site The Pirate Bay surprised a Stockholm court by amending the charges as the trial entered its second day on Tuesday.

Roswall has removed all mention of "complicity in the production of copyrighted material" from the charge sheet against the four men, Hans Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström.

Roswall has confirmed that he now plans to limit the charges to the production of the actual torrent file and not the resultant hard or soft copy. The new charges will be amended to read "complicity to make (copyrighted material) available".

"A sensation," according to defence lawyer Per E. Samuelsson. "It is very rare that you win half the case after one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor has been deeply affected by what we said yesterday."

Read more

Should we really be that surprised about such a blunder? I don't think so...

Let's hope the boys of the Pirate Bay will get a fair trial (which they likely will win). So far so good.

LINKS
- Pirate Bay prosecutor amends charges
- Jim left the Warner Bros. network
- Recovery from Warner to police job

Amy Goodman on Meet the Press! (video)

2009-02-16T08:31:00.005-08:00

BILL MOYERS: I think you wrote on your blog that Dave Brody from the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson’s outfit, will one Sunday show up on “Meet the Press.” But an Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” will never show up on “Meet the Press.” What’s behind that phenomenon?

JAY ROSEN: I think part of the reason is that if Amy Goodman came on “Meet the Press,” she would say all sorts of things that not only challenge the people on the program, but challenge what they have been saying over the years. Would go back, in a sense, discredit the narrative that’s been building up for a long time. And even though it’s maybe not wholly conscious, the idea that there’s a kind of building narrative that is more or less accurate, that we kind of tell you what’s going on in Washington, is a common assumption in the press. And people who would completely shatter that, don’t [get invited on shows such as NBC's Meet the Press].

GLENN GREENWALD: I think that’s exactly right. It’s all about the content of views. Rush Limbaugh can depict himself as being this insurgent outsider [..] [but] all of the conventional clichés that the media airs frequently [...] are ones that Rush Limbaugh and the furthest fringes of the right essentially embrace.

And so, to include [extreme right-wing views] into our discussion is not very disruptive at all, whereas if you had people on from the left who were advocating things like the United States’ responsibility for its unpopularity in the world, the fact that we wage wars and bomb other countries and invade and occupy other countries far more than any nation on the planet. To include somebody like [Amy Goodman] would not only threaten the vested interests of everybody who’s participating in these conversations, it would disrupt the entire narrative, as Jay said it would. [...]

[These views are] stigmatized, they’re demonized as being things that don’t really deserve a platform. And so, you can’t include advocates of these views in these shows.

Read it all here

LINKS
- Democracy Now!: Why will Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! never show up on ‘Meet The Press?’
- Wikipedia: Meet the Press

Dutch party chief Geert Wilders barred from UK

2009-02-10T23:42:00.001-08:00

By Michael Steen in Amsterdam | Published: February 11 2009 00:45 | Last updated: February 11 2009 00:45

Britain has taken the unusual step of banning a Dutch member of parliament from entering the country due to his stridently anti-Islamic views, prompting the Dutch government to protest. Geert Wilders, who heads the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, had been due to travel to London on Thursday for a screening of his film, Fitna, organised by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a eurosceptic peer. The film criticises Islam, one of Mr Wilders’ main targets.

LINKS

- Financial Times: Dutch party chief barred from UK

Aljazeera explains why Israel committed war crimes, on Livestation

2009-01-25T16:37:00.004-08:00

The English broadcast of Aljazeera (and many other channels, including BBC News, France24) can be easily viewed through the Livestation player (free - Windows, Mac, Linux). Get the full story on the Israel-Gaza war, and learn why many believe that the Israelis have committed war crimes.
Amnesty International has said it is "undeniable" that Israel used white phosphorus in crowded civilian areas, contrary to international law, charging that this amounted to a war crime.

Accusing Israel of using excessive force, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has demanded that those responsible for bombing UN buildings in the Palestinian territory be made accountable.

UN schools and the main aid headquarters where tonnes of food was stocked were bombed.

Eight Israeli human rights groups have called on the Israeli government to investigate the scale of the casualties, describing the number of dead women and children as "terrifying".

LINKS
- Livestation
- Aljazeera: Israel to shield Gaza war soldiers

getting into the new years eve mood (dutch only)

2008-12-31T12:28:00.004-08:00

LINKS
- Vara's HumorTV: Pi-pa-pijpen

N-America's sanatizing of "raw" war footage shows its Pro-Jewish bias

2008-12-28T17:54:00.018-08:00

The complete footage you were protected from seeing:

LINKS
- NOS Journaal: "raw" war footage
- Guardian: video footage attack Gaza
- CTV's "version" of the truth

I know the place...Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008)

2008-12-25T08:52:00.004-08:00

I know the place

I know the place.
It is true.
Everything we do
Corrects the space
Between death and me
And you.

LINKS
- BBC: Harold Pinter Dies
- Wikipedia: Harold Pinter
- Soliloguy...Pinter

Hey Iggy, is Sesame Street on your playlist too?

2008-12-10T19:49:00.006-08:00

I'm sure it is:

Nearly 20 years ago the US armed forces in Panama used the music of Guns N' Roses and Elvis Presley, played at maximum volume over loudspeakers, to try and drive the country's leader, Manuel Noriega, to surrender. A tactic was born. Since then, music played at unbearable volumes has been frequently deployed in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere by the CIA, as part of a sophisticated portfolio of torture against detainees. [...]
"What we're talking about here is people in a darkened room, physically inhibited by handcuffs, bags over their heads and music blaring at them," said musician David Gray. "That is nothing but torture. It doesn't matter what the music is. It could be Tchaikovsky's finest or it could be Barney the Dinosaur. It really doesn't matter, it's going to drive you completely nuts."[...]
One of the reasons for using loud music in this way is that it leaves no marks on the body. [...]

Prison playlist

US military interrogators have often blasted music at detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

The styles of music used range from heavy metal to pop. According to the British legal charity Reprieve, these are among the songs they have used most frequently: Enter Sandman Metallica, Bodies Drowning Pool, Shoot to Thrill and Hells Bells AC/DC, I Love You from the Barney & Friends children's television show. Born in the USA Bruce Springsteen, Babylon David Gray, White America Eminem. Sesame Street, theme tune from the children's television show.

Iggy is so sweet.

LINKS
- Guardian: Musicians condemn use of their songs as instruments of war
- Ignatieff on torture: We should not take the rule of law "too firmly". Let's prevent war with "indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war"

Harper is liar; national outrage confirms he needs to be removed

2008-12-08T09:31:00.003-08:00

Given that Ed Broadbent hasn't been sued by Stephen Harper yet (and we all know Harper loves to sue over "nothing"), we can now be confident to assume that Harper is, yes, a liar.

In Ed Broadbent's own words, "They lie. I repeat. They pay people to lie about other people, and destroy things."

Don't believe it? Here's Ed Broadbent on the CBC:

h/t BCer in Toronto

LINKS:
- Wikipedia: Ed Broadbent
- BCer in Toronto: Harper is a liar
- Why Harper should be in jail

Canada's Democracy-light: it would have been funny if it wasn't so backwards

2008-12-08T00:56:00.004-08:00

h/t Paulitics

Stephen Harper Leadership (image)

2008-12-06T15:00:00.002-08:00

h/t impolitical

WSWS: Canada’s “constitutional coup” and the corporate media

2008-12-05T21:37:00.001-08:00

By Keith Jones
6 December 2008

original here.

Canada's corporate media is either vocally supporting Thursday's "constitutional coup"—the minority Conservative government and the unelected governor-general shut down parliament so as to prevent the opposition parties from ousting the government in a non-confidence vote—or keeping a guilty silence.

Never before in Canada or any other country that follows the British parliamentary pattern has a government prorogued parliament to avoid defeat in an impending non-confidence vote.

That Stephen Harper's Conservative government had lost parliament's support and was facing defeat is incontrovertible. The three opposition parties, who together have a parliamentary majority and polled substantially more than half of the votes in an election less than eight weeks ago, had officially informed Governor-General Michaëlle Jean that they would defeat the government at the earliest opportunity. They had also formally notified her of their intention to form an alternate government, a Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the Bloc Québécois.

Since Prime Minister Harper manifestly did not have parliament's support, the governor-general, according to all constitutional precedent, had no choice but to rebuff his request that parliament be shut down till the end of January.

The anti-democratic nature of the Conservatives' attempt to cling to power in defiance of parliament was further underscored by the visceral, anti-democratic campaign they mounted in the run-up to Thursday's shutting down of parliament. The Conservatives and their supporters in the corporate media openly incited anti-Quebec chauvinism and labeled the opposition's attempt to form an alternate government "illegal," even treasonous.

But rather than telling Harper that the no-confidence vote scheduled for this coming Monday had to proceed, Governor-General Jean, bowing to the wishes of Canada's ruling class, ordered parliament shut down, thereby ensuring the survival of a government without parliament's support.

Given the import and unprecedented character of Jean's actions, one would have expected all of the country's major newspapers to have published editorials Friday analyzing and critiquing them. In fact there was scant editorial comment.

Predictably, the neo-conservative National Post and several other right-wing mouthpieces hailed the governor-general for doing the "right thing."

But most of the press was silent. Neither the Globe and Mail nor La presse, respectively the most influential English- and French-language dailies, commented editorially on the governor-general's action.

The Toronto Star, a newspaper closely allied with the Liberal Party, stated in passing, in an editorial devoted to urging Harper to pursue a less "adversarial" course, that Jean "probably had no choice but to grant" the prime minister his request for parliament to be prorogued "lest her office be accused of partisanship."

The opposition parties, it needs by emphasized, have acted in a like fashion. They have failed to vigorously condemn the shutting down of parliament as a major attack on democratic rights, let alone called on the public to oppose it. As of Friday evening, the web site of the New Democratic Party, Canada's social-democratic party, carried no statement of any kind on the shutting down of parliament. But it did feature party leader Jack Layton's tribute to three Canadian Armed Forces soldiers killed Friday in Afghanistan fighting to uphold the US-installed government of Hamid Karzai.

The media silence has a double-purpose.

First, to stifle public debate of what has taken place and why.

Second, to protect the office of the governor-general and the fictions and fabrications that surround it. The representative of the monarch, the governor-general is a supposedly non-partisan and almost exclusively ceremonial institution. In fact, as the events of the past week have demonstrated, the governor-general has vast "reserve" powers, powers that are subject to no legal check. Jean has not, nor will she provide any explanation for her actions.

The bourgeoisie has maintained this feudal relic precisely so as to arm itself with a means of short-circuiting parliamentary democracy in a time of crisis. And all sections of the bourgeoisie, especially now under conditions of mounting economic crisis and social conflict, are determined to preserve this institution, armed with unlimited constitutional power and utterly insulated from the will of the people.

Given the general lack of editorial comment on Thursday's suspension of parliament, the position adopted by editorial board of the Ottawa Citizen is especially revealing. In an editorial titled "The wounded body politic," the Citizen, conceded that "Canadian democracy" had "sustained long-term damage" as a result of this week's event, but ultimately argued this damage was the necessary price of preventing the coming to power of a Liberal-NDP government.

"A fundamental principle of our democracy," propounded the Citizen, "is that the executive branch cannot govern without the consent and participation of the legislative branch. For the next month and a half, Mr. Harper proposes to govern without a parliament." The Citizen went on to warn that future governments "can now try to escape" parliament's judgment by appealing to the governor-general.

These concerns were raised, however, only to be smartly dismissed: "Practically speaking proroguing parliament will probably make for a better few months for the country, and for the economy, than the alternative that the Liberals and NDP had planned."

In truth, the Liberals and NDP were planning to form a right-wing government committed to Canada continuing to play a leading role in the Afghan war till the end of 2011 and to implementing the Conservatives' plan to slash corporate taxes by more than $50 billion over five years.

But the most powerful sections of the bourgeoisie preferred a government of unabashed reaction and toward that end were quite ready to run roughshod over parliamentary norms and democratic rights.

Whilst the editorial pages largely avoided commenting on the shutting down of parliament, the dailies did publish many copy-inches of reportage. The common refrain of this reportage was that the governor-general had called a "time out."

The "time out" metaphor has a very definite political significance. It is meant to lull the population to sleep, to foster the notion that little, if anything, of significance has taken place and everything will, in any event, soon go back to normal because parliament has merely been "suspended."

The truth is otherwise. The suspension of parliament and of MPs' right to defeat and replace the sitting government strikes at the most fundamental democratic principle—the right of the people to choose their own government.

If not overturned by a movement from below, Canada's constitution, through the power of precedent, will have been rewritten and the powers of the executive, of both the sitting government and of the governor-general, to ignore parliament and rule by decree will have been significantly increased.

As for the question of "suspension," this is precisely how democratic rights are taken away. Governments moving in an authoritarian direction don't generally outright abolish democratic rights; they "suspend" them, claiming that they need to be temporarily withdrawn so as to confront a purported crisis or emergency.

Working people must take heed: The corporate media's support for the constitutional coup engineered by the Conservatives and the governor-general attests to the fact there is no significant constituency within the ruling class committed to the defence of constitutional principles and democratic rights.

A little humour never hurts. Heil Harper!

2008-12-05T14:12:00.003-08:00

h/t Canuck Attitude

Time for some counter-spin: Stephen Harper is a separatist

2008-12-04T22:51:00.008-08:00

Time has come to put some counter-spin on Harper's main buzz-word "separatists".

The reality is that Harper has done nothing to embrace Quebec into a unified Canada, on the contrary. Harper has been burning bridges, so much that you wonder who it really is that wants to separate.

Who's the separatist now?
Wouldn't it be a great idea if, from now on, WE call HARPER a separatist?
That message would certainly not get lost on the public (the Harper machine has done the hard work for us) and is far closer to the truth.

The poll results of Harper's attacks on the Bloc show that Harper's battle to keep the country together resulted in completely the opposite effect in Quebec: the Bloc gained more support while all other parties remained or lost ground.

I'm arguing that Harper has not only united the left, but has also brought us closer to the breakup of Canada (I believe one of his ultimate goals).

Turning your perceived weakness into your strength.
Harper's "separatist VETO" message worked very well outside of Quebec. By blaming the coalition for their willingness to break up the country by working with the separatists, he was able to portray the coalition as an un-Canadian coalition (at least in the eyes of English Canadians).

It's time to turn our perceived weakness into our strength.

Harper has isolated himself with his separatists remarks, yet to make parliament work parties need to work together. Only the coalition is willing to work together, and only the coalition is working to keep this country together.

Anti-Separatist motto....
Which leads me to the coalition's motto: Let's work together.

UPDATE 1
I'm not alone in saying that Harper is a separatist

UPDATE 2
I've added a picture from an anti-coalition rally - h/t daveberta

Please be part of this online poll

2008-12-04T13:53:00.001-08:00

Canoe has an online poll, straight and simple. Be part of it and show your support for the coalition.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Survey/2008/12/03/7618901.php

Thousands at pro-coalition rally in Ottawa

2008-12-04T12:54:00.003-08:00

From xtra.ca

The country was mostly watching the door of Government House. The heavy, wooden doors opened, then closed, then opened again and Stephen Harper immerged.

On his advice, Governor General Michaëlle Jean prorogued Parliament until Jan 26, 2009. That means Harper and the Conservatives will not face a confidence vote next week which would have surely toppled Parliament and replaced it with a Liberal-NDP coalition.

Minutes after Harper stepped away from the microphone, Parliament Hill erupted with the shouts of thousands of pro-coalition supporters.

PROTEST PROTOCOL. An upbeat crowd shouted traditional chants. Hey hey, ho ho, Stephen Harper's got to go.

(Marcus McCann)

The demonstration was planned earlier in the week — the first of two dozen pro-Liberal-NDP coalition rallies being held in the next three days.

The timing of the Ottawa rally gave opposition leaders a chance to address throngs of supporters about the latest development, news that had just started circulating among supporters, many of them on their lunch breaks from downtown office jobs.

Stephane Dion spoke first.

"For the first time in Canadian History," he says, "the Prime Minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada."

NDP leader Jack Layton echoed the sentiment.

"Stephen Harper just put the locks on the House of Commons so that we can't vote him out of office," says Layton. "I call on all of you not to give up for one second."

TEMP JOB. Stephane Dion addresses the crowd on Parliament Hill Dec 4. He insisted that Harper's grip on the Prime Ministership was failing.

(Marcus McCann)

The event was hosted by former Rabble editor Judy Rebick. Rebick says that the Conservative government has to be held accountable for its economic update, a document many have criticized for being overly partisan.

"What we've seen in the lasy few days is the return of the reform party, their anti-feminist policies, the anti-worker policies, the vicious anti-Quebec policies," she says.

Jean's decision ends days of speculation about the immediate future of the government.

Turnout at Ottawa protests are often tepid compared to the outpourings at sister rallies in Toronto, Vancouver, and smaller Canadian cities like Hamilton and Halifax. But with more than 2,000 supporters turning out for the daytime rally, every indication is that subsequent demonstrations will be even bigger.

For a list of demonstrations over the next three days, go to makeparliamentwork.ca.

SUPPORT. Representatives from the public sector unions, dressed in orange vests, handed out chocolates and signs declaring their support for a coalition government.

(Marcus McCann)

FIGHTING FORM. Layton gave a fiery speech where he told the crowd Harper had put a padlock on Parliament.

(Marcus McCann)

Disappointed, but NOT DEFEATED!

2008-12-04T10:32:00.004-08:00

Disappointed
Of course I'm truly disappointed. Technically, I think the Governor-General made the wrong decision and set the wrong precedent. But I accept her decision, and find further discussion on her decision unproductive.

Harper is still in the looser's seat
Harper is playing political games, and he's good at it (I'll give him that). But the fact is that the numbers needed to govern this country haven't changed: the majority of MPs want this government OUT.

It's up to our elected MP
Our MPs have the key to the demise of the current government. A majority of MPs wants this government, led by Stephen Harper, out. Let's make sure they stick to it.

Keep the left united
Get in touch with your MP (especially those MPs that support the coalition of course) and tell them how much you are looking forward to see the coalition parties in power, ALL OF THEM. I'm sure our MPs are just as disappointed in GG's decision as us, and in need of our support.

Action required
Write a letter, send a postcard, leave a positive phone message on the answering machine. Be nice, hopeful, even demanding. We can do this, yes, we can :)

Harper's last 5 days in office - I'm feeling fine!

2008-12-03T21:38:00.001-08:00

Harper will be removed from office in 5 days!

Put this on you

Publish Post

r site

What the "raging left" should do now: cool down to show how absurd the Raging Right really is

2008-12-03T11:03:00.010-08:00

Stay calm
The main thing that Harper and his bigoted bullies is out to do now is to create an outrage, which seems to be taking place all over the country.

It's in the interest of the coalition to do EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE, and either calmly rebuke Conservative talking point, or ignore them all together.

Be careful to not come off as a "raging left" as that is only helping their cause of creating outrage.

It's the economy, ....
There is no outrage, no political crisis, only a change of power which will take place 5 days from now. The only real crisis is economic.

We need a stable, majority backed government to deal with the economic crisis.
It's the economy, (but leave out the "stupid").

Jack said it right, and the right way:

Prime Minister, your government has lost the confidence of the House. And it is going to be defeated at the earliest opportunity in the House of Commons. I urge you to accept this gracefully.

Remain confident and democracy will take its course.

Canada's political turmoil made it onto The Real News (video)

2008-12-03T09:27:00.002-08:00

Well done, The Real News!

Consider donating to the Real News - Getting It Right does.

NUPGE's Larry Brown on the Bullying Bigots and their Bogus Democracy.

2008-12-03T09:06:00.006-08:00

National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) on the bullying bigots and their bogus democracy. Read the full version here
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stephen Harper's bogus democracy

By Larry Brown
National Secretary-Treasurer
National Union of Public and General Employees

Ottawa (3 Dec. 2008) - Life doesn’t often get more interesting than this. The Harper government introduced a so-called economic update that amounts to a vindictive attack on unions, on the opposition parties, on democracy itself; an economic statement that had no valid economics in it.

The deficit forecasts were farcical, and there was no economic stimulus, which experts of every stripe are calling for unanimously. The update was a monumental, colossal mistake.

And now, in the face of a coalition of the Liberals and the NDP, we are being treated to completely bogus arguments as to why the Harper government should not be defeated and replaced by the coalition. Here are some of the arguments, none of which are valid.

(1) In this time of financial crisis we need a stable government.

It’s amazing the Conservatives would trot this out as an argument. The coalition is promising to govern for a minimum of 18 months. The Harper government can be defeated any time it makes the kind of mistake it made last week.

So if we need a stable government, the choice is obvious – we should go with the coalition. They promise much more stability than Harper can. [...]

(2) It would be undemocratic to defeat Harper after winning re-election.

[...] Harper didn’t win his majority of seats, the only real reason he had called the election. A majority of voters (63%) voted for political parties that disagreed with Harper on almost every issue.

Our democratic traditions say that to defeat a minority government, and replace it with another party or parties that have the support of the House, is perfectly valid - in the period following a election. That is democracy. To argue that the voters of Canada gave Harper a strong mandate is nonsense.

(3) The Harper government has backed down on his contentious economic statement so the problem has been resolved.

[...] Harper did not back down on all of his attacks on democracy. He has pulled back on party financing, at least for now. He has grudgingly admitted that his attack on the democratic right of workers won’t proceed, at least for now.

[...] What Harper has not backed down on is his attempt to use the law to overturn freely negotiated collective agreements.

[...] What Harper also has not backed down on is the attack on pay equity that would deny women workers their democratic right to non-discrimination in the workplace. [...]

It's about time

The union, without the right to set salaries, would be jointly liable if the employer refused to agree to fair wages. These would be the same unions that Harper thinks should not have the right to freely bargain their wages in the first place!

What remains in his plan is attacks on the fundamental democratic right of federal public sector workers. What is remotely democratic about an attack on democratic rights?

What we are seeing in Parliament is democracy in action. It’s about time.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring that our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE

Web posted by NUPGE: 3 December 2008

The Globe and Mail's pro Harper bias: it's everywhere

2008-12-02T23:39:00.007-08:00

If one thing has become evident in the last few days it is the following: Canada's capitalist media has a clear pro-Conservative bias. And I'm not just talking about the National Post.

Take the Globe and Mail.
Example #1: Andrew Steele's “Harper's Options”. Anyone who has read it will have to conclude that Andrew did not include all options available, on the contrary.

How about the option of letting democracy prevail by doing “non of the above”? Did Andrew really forget the most decent option of all or has his (anticipated?) bias in favour of the Conservatives tainted his ability to proper reasoning?

Why it is bias: it is pro-Harper bias because Andrew seems to have intentionally left out the most obvious and descent thing to do: after the government falls (on Monday), let the majority backed coalition rule.

Example #2: Jeffrey Simpson's “Harper bulldozes his way to the brink”. His opening puts right away on the wrong foot:

What an unpalatable choice now beckons Canadians: a government led by a Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, whose approach has disappointed so many; or a government led by Stéphane Dion, the Liberal Leader Canadians resoundingly rejected six weeks ago.

Does anyone see a problem with this kind of reasoning? Well, I do! First off, Jeffrey implies that Canadians need to make a choice. Wrong! Canadians have already resoundingly spoken in the last election, only six weeks ago. Suffering from temporary Alzheimers, Jeffrey?

Why it is bias: Jeffrey Simpsons suggests that Canadians need to go to the polls (something favoured by the Conservatives, if you haven't noticed). But our democracy is designed in such a way that a majority of MPs make the choice of who gets to govern; no other intervention is needed to let the majority-backed coalition govern.

The rest of the article is more of the same bias, combined with some more of the same (blah blah blah - national paper lost in provincialism); I will leave that for what it is.

Example #3 Adam Radwanski's “From the kitchen table to the cabinet table”. Lets not dwell on the title for now, but jump right to the end of the article:

Oh, and if Pat Martin is poised to take a cabinet seat, Stephen Harper is entirely justified in proroguing Parliament, barring the doors to the House of Commons, and doing whatever else it takes to prevent this thing from ever happening.

Why this is bias: It is a majority-backed coalition's full right to elect a government of their choosing. Where's the logic that a failed Prime Minister of Canada (a.k.a. Steve) is “entirely justified” to prorogue Parliament on the basis of a disliked MP? Where does Adam Radwanski's disdain for democracy stem from? Are all writers at the Globe and Mail that biased?

Keep reading

Example #4: Front page presents four links, three of them link to overly (or should I say overtly?) biased articles justifying the Conservative's "we-are-sooo-outraged" propaganda crap forward by the Conservatives:
Let me explain.

1. Audio: New Conservative Radio ad (!)
2. Can the PM sack the Governor-General (discussed above, #1)
3. Who would the NDP put in cabinet (discussed above, #2)
(4. Globe Politics)

Here's what a progressive would have enjoyed to see in a national paper:

1. Audio: Listen to the latest Conservative and Coalition backing ads.
2. Can Harper regain the confidence of the house?
3. Is Harper going to spend his Christmas in Ottawa?
(4. Globe Politics)

Why it bias:

(1) Publishing exact copies of Conservative ads but not once mention the latest ad in support of the coalition goes against one of the general rules of journalism: bring balance by finding and reporting on every side of a story. Why not at least present both ads?

I've already discussed Radwanski's (3) lack of logic and disdain for parliamentary democracy. Suggesting that the GG (2) is subordinate to the PM (when the opposite is closer to the truth) is favouring the all-over-the-capitalist-media-bias that what has been done to the PM is outrageous when in fact there's only one person to blame for his own misery: Stephen Harper himself. Had Harper presented a more agreeable budget and not provoked the majority opposition with his mean-spirited cuts to political financing then I would not have been writing this post.

Our Prime Minister has lost all confidence from the newly elected MPs (the house), yet he continues his campaign of misinformation and slander (and even lies that seem to have been "missed" by this wonderful paper) in order to organize as much "outrage" possible in order to influence an upcoming decision by Michaele Jean.

His disrespect for the house and the majority of people who did NOT elect this Bush backing Conservative is far more outragious to people than anything else. I would like to see a goverment that works.

Lastly, I do realize that this posting is far from conclusive. Nevertheless I hope I have been able to show my readers how highly biased (in this case in favour of the Conservative Party) Canadian corporate media is.

Harper's last 6 days in office - and I'm feeling good :)

2008-12-02T18:06:00.005-08:00

Who hasn't seen one of the pro-Harper counters? Most Blogging Tories carry one. To show some compassion I've added one myself (see below).

1030 days in office, not bad. But the countdown has begun.

Harper will be removed from office in 6 days

Put this on your site

Canadian Labour supports a majoity backed coalition, and so should you (video)

2008-12-02T16:09:00.001-08:00

The Grumpy Voter is NOT progressive

2008-12-02T13:24:00.003-08:00

Here's a message I left at "the Grumpy Voter", Canada's most right-wing progressive :)

Perhaps you take plesure in calling fellow Progressive Bloggers "idiots" , but let's remind everyone who the real idiot is here.

national unity trumps everything else

I agree! Does the word coalition mean anything to you? Conservatives are the most divicive people still in the house.

This majority-backed coalition is willing to cooperate with ALL oposition parties, but none of them will help the Bloc in their effort to separate. What's so hard to get about this?

The only explanation why it is so hard to get is, because you are a Rightwing Conservative backer in disguise.

Where did you get that Progressive Blogger Banner anyways? I'm sure Scott regrets having given you one because you are obviously as progressive as Stephen Harper himself. There's noting progressive about keeping a minority government in power when a majority-backed coalition is about to take over control.

Suck it up, Mr. Conservative, Harper is on his way out. Good riddance!

I do want to take this opportunity to thank Stephen Harper for one thing , because he's been able to do what many others couldn't.

Thank you for uniting the so-called left in Canada; well done!

Banner and Poster to support the "Coalition Government Now!"

2008-12-02T12:04:00.008-08:00

It's time to organize!

Banner for Vancouver Rally:

Poster "Let's make Parliament Work!" (pdf)

LINKS
- Let's make parliament work - Coalition Government Now!

Change we can believe in, Canada style (video): An all new Progressive Coalition!

2008-11-28T13:26:00.006-08:00

Remember my last post? Well, it seems like change is around the corner wherever I look, and this Getting It Right xenophile is liking it!

Much progress has been made in South America (kudos to Morales), so NOW it is time for the North to wake up. Canadians, it's time to dump the criminal and start working on PROGRESS with an all new Canadian Progressive Coalition.

Don't forget to watch the movie:

LINKS
- Change we can believe in, South American style: Neoliberalism Is No Solution for Humankind
- Wikipedia: Movement toward socialism
- Canadians for a Progressive Coalition

Why Milton Friedman (and free-market orthodoxy) is OUT and Paul Krugman (and counter-counter reformation) is IN

2008-11-25T09:12:00.014-08:00

Let's remember why big business hates unions, government regulations and restrictions:Yes, it's because big fish like to eat small fish, and is rather scared of any counter movement.

Well, the time has come: Milton Friedman is OUT and Paul Krugman is IN.

In Paul Krugman's own words, from before the credit crunch (2007):

Friedman's laissez-faire absolutism contributed to an intellectual climate in which faith in markets and disdain for government often trumps the evidence.

Developing countries rushed to open up their capital markets, despite warnings that this might expose them to financial crises; then, when the crises duly arrived, many observers blamed the countries' governments, not the instability of international capital flows.

Electricity deregulation proceeded despite clear warnings that monopoly power might be a problem; in fact, even as the California electricity crisis was happening, most commentators dismissed concerns about price-rigging as wild conspiracy theories. Conservatives continue to insist that the free market is the answer to the health care crisis, in the teeth of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
What's odd about Friedman's absolutism on the virtues of markets and the vices of government is that in his work as an economist's economist he was actually a model of restraint. [...] Why didn't he exhibit the same restraint in his role as a public intellectual?

The answer, I suspect, is that he got caught up in an essentially political role. Milton Friedman the great economist could and did acknowledge ambiguity. But Milton Friedman the great champion of free markets was expected to preach the true faith, not give voice to doubts. And he ended up playing the role his followers expected. As a result, over time the refreshing iconoclasm of his early career hardened into a rigid defense of what had become the new orthodoxy.

[There's] a good case for arguing that Friedmanism, in the end, went too far, both as a doctrine and in its practical applications. When Friedman was beginning his career as a public intellectual, the times were ripe for a counterreformation against Keynesianism and all that went with it. But what the world needs now, I'd argue, is a counter-counterreformation.

LINKS
- Sound economics, but bigoted opinions: "Free to choose", as long as you stay away from choosing for government regualtions and unions (and other outdated biogotry - video)
- Democracy Now! An interview with Paul Krugman (october 2007 - video) - On Bailout talks (september 2008 - video)
- Wikipedia: Paul Krugman
- Wikipedia: bigotry

Dutch town to condone cannabis farm

2008-11-21T23:06:00.002-08:00

Radio Netherlands

The Dutch town of Eindhoven is going to allow a farm to grow cannabis. Though the farm will be under municipal supervision, the growing of marijuana will remain illegal. The pilot experiment was agreed at a meeting of more than 30 Dutch municipalities aimed at discussing the sale of soft-drugs such as marijuana and hashish.

A number of mayors is unhappy about the ongoing drugs tourism attracted by coffee shops and the nuisance they cause. Two towns near the Belgian border recently closed all coffee shops. Just before the summit, Amsterdam announced it was shutting 43 coffee shops which under new government norms are too close to schools. The summit discussed the possibility of legalising the growing of weed, which is currently illegal, and ways of discouraging drugs tourism.

LINKS
- Radio Netherlands: Dutch town to condone cannabis farm
- Wikipedia: Drug Policy of the Netherlands

Evo Morales visits Washington (video)

2008-11-21T09:11:00.004-08:00

LINKS
- The Real News: Evo Morales in his own words

Cheney charged over jail 'abuses' (video)

2008-11-19T07:54:00.004-08:00

from BBC News

A Texas grand jury has charged US Vice-President Dick Cheney for "organised criminal activity" related to alleged abuse of private prison inmates.

The indictment says Mr Cheney - who has invested $85m (£56m) in a company that holds shares in for-profit prisons - conspired to block an investigation.

The indictment has not been seen by a judge, who could dismiss it.

Mr Cheney's spokeswoman declined to comment, saying his office had not yet received a copy of the charges.

One Texas lawyer said the charges were politically motivated.

'Conflict of interest'

The indictment was overseen by county District Attorney Juan Guerra, an outgoing prosecutor at the end of his term of office.

He cites the case of Gregorio De La Rosa, who died on 26 April, 2001 inside a private prison in Willacy County, Texas.

The grand jury in Willacy County, near the US-Mexico border, accuses Mr Cheney of committing "at least misdemeanour assaults" of inmates by allowing other inmates to assault them.

It said there was a "direct conflict of interest" because Mr Cheney had influence over federal contracts awarded to prison companies.

US grand juries weigh evidence to decide whether a case is worthy of being sent for a full trial, before issuing formal charges known as indictments.

The three-page indictment also alleges that former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "used his position...to stop the investigations as to the wrong doings."

The grand jury wrote that it made its decision "with great sadness," but said they had no other choice but to indict Mr Cheney and Mr Gonzales "because we love our country."

Several other related indictments were brought against a host of public officials in what one lawyer called a circus act by the outgoing prosecutor, Mr Guerra, who he said was seeking revenge in his final weeks in office.

Video from The Real News:

LINKS
- BBC News: A Texas grand jury has charged US Vice-President Dick Cheney for "organised criminal activity"
- The Real News: Dick Cheney Indicted

23 Canadians dead; we need a moratorium on the use of tasers, NOW!

2008-11-05T06:30:00.003-08:00

The Canadian Press has a list of Canadian cases since 2003 in which people died after police use of Tasers:

Nov. 3, 2008: Gordon Walker Bowe, 30, from Castlegar, B.C., died in hospital after he was located in the basement of a Calgary home by police responding to calls about a possible break-and-enter.

Oct. 29, 2008: Trevor Grimolfson died after he was confronted by police armed with Tasers who found him running amok in an Edmonton pawn shop.

Sept. 30, 2008: Frank Frachette, 49, died after he was jolted with a Taser by police who were trying to arrest him in connection with a bank robbery in Langley, B.C.

Sept. 16, 2008: Sean Reilly, 42, died less than 12 hours after he was Tasered during a struggle in a cell at a police station in Peel Region, outside Toronto.

July 22, 2008: Michael Langan, 17, died in hospital after being shot with a Taser. Winnipeg police say the youth refused to comply with repeated requests by officers to put a knife down. The victim was believed to be involved in the theft of property from a vehicle.

June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, died in custody after Ontario Provincial Police, responding to a disturbance in the town of Norfolk, near Simcoe, shocked him with a Taser. Marreel's father said the man had a history of drug use and lost his job at a flower nursery two weeks prior.

Nov. 22, 2007: Howard Hyde, 45, died about 30 hours after he was Tasered by Halifax police at a Dartmouth jail. An inquest later ruled his death accidental and the result of "excited delirium," not the Taser.

Oct. 17, 2007: Quilem Registre, 39, died in a Montreal hospital after police used a Taser on him at a police station. Police say Registre became aggressive during questioning after he was stopped for a traffic violation.

Oct. 14, 2007: Robert Dziekanski, 40, died after police used a Taser and forcibly subdued him after he became agitated at Vancouver Airport, where he had arrived from Poland.

Aug. 30, 2006: Jason Doan, 28, died in Red Deer, Alta., after police used a Taser in responding to a complaint about a man seen damaging vehicles.

Dec. 24, 2005: Alessandro Fiacco, 33; witnesses said police used a Taser to subdue an agitated Fiacco who had been running into traffic in Edmonton.

July 15, 2005: Paul Saulnier, 42, died in Digby, N.S., after police tried to keep him from leaving the detachment by using pepper spray, batons and a Taser.

July 1, 2005: James Foldi, 39, died after police used a Taser while trying to arrest him following reports of numerous break-ins in the Beamsville, Ont., area.

June 30, 2005: Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, died in Surrey, B.C., after police used a Taser while responding to complaints about a domestic dispute.

May 5, 2005: Kevin Geldart, 34, died after police tried to subdue him with a Taser outside a Moncton, N.B., bar.

Aug. 8, 2004: Samuel Truscott, 43, died in Kingston, Ont., hours after being shot with a Taser. The Ontario coroner said Truscott was killed by a drug overdose.

July 17, 2004: Jerry Knight, 29, died in hospital in Brampton, Ont., after he was shot with a Taser during a violent struggle with police. A pathologist found no proof the stun gun was to blame for his death, saying Knight died from restraint asphyxia and cocaine-related 'excited delirium'.

June 23, 2004: Robert Bagnell, 44, died at a Vancouver hotel after being shot with a Taser by police, who said Bagnell was in the throes of a potentially lethal cocaine-induced psychosis at the time.

May 13, 2004: Peter Lamonday, 33, died in London, Ont., after being pepper-sprayed, punched and shot several times with a Taser during a struggle with police. Ontario's Special Investigation Unit concluded Lamonday died from cocaine-induced 'excited delirium" and not from police action.

May 1, 2004: Roman Andreichikov, 25, died in Vancouver after he was forcibly subdued and hit with a Taser by police while reportedly high on crack cocaine.

Sept. 28, 2003: Clark Whitehouse, 34, died in Whitehorse, Yukon. RCMP reported Whitehouse fled on foot while attempting to swallow drugs. Officers used a Taser to subdue him. A short time later, he appeared to be having trouble breathing and was pronounced dead at hospital.

July 22, 2003: Clay Willey, 33, died in hospital in Prince George, B.C., 16 hours after police used a Taser on him at an RCMP detachment. Willey was arrested in the parking lot of a local mall after police received complaints about a man acting aggressively. An autopsy found he had potentially lethal amounts of cocaine in his system.

April 19, 2003: Terrance Hanna, 51, died at the North Burnaby Inn in Burnaby, B.C., after pulling a knife and hammer on police. High on cocaine, he went into cardiac arrest after police shot him with a Taser.

New Westminster Police Const. Tomi Hamner charged with impaired driving after she crashed police vehicle

2008-10-30T22:06:00.010-07:00

Names seem to be popping up out of nowhere these days.

Getting It Right has learned that it was New Westminster Police Const. Tomi Hamner who crashed a police car (paid for with your tax dollars) while enjoying driving-under-influence, somewhere in North Vancouver(!).

A popular British Columbia school liaison officer is the latest police officer in the province to face drunk driving charges after she crashed an unmarked police car into a highway sign and flunked two breathalyzer tests.
RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen confirmed Thursday that the 47-year-old off-duty New Wesminister police officer was arrested on Oct. 16 and was released on a promise to appear in North Vancouver court Dec. 17.
New Westminster police Const. Tomi Hamner, who was a well-liked school liaison officer with the New Westminster Secondary School, is on "administrative duties" and police had no plans to embarrass the officer by making the incident public until an anonymous tipster called media, said Thiessen.

I suppose it is embarrassing, but why the favouritism? Why give off-duty police officers who drink-and-drive and crash a police car (paid for by the public, to serve and protect us) preferential treatment?

Yes, that's what it is. This accident didn't happen yesterday, but on October 16. That's two weeks ago! There are a plethora of examples where the RCMP/Police could not wait to get the names of the suspects out to the public before any hearing. Here are just a few:

Example 1
Chilliwack drug war heats up
Curtis Wayne Vidal, 22, Chad Hansen, 21, and Martin Snowden, 22, face assault and weapons charges.

Example 2
RCMP have shut down a known drug house and arrested six people.

Police raided the 9th Avenue home and found a large quantity of cocaine and marijuana. Shannon Hernandez-Zuniga, 29, Sundown Bill Steiger, 32, Travis Starblanket, 20, Wesley Teal, 25, Chan Van Troung, 45, and Michael Bruce, 18, face a string of drug charges.

Example 3
Richmond - Off-Duty Officer Assaulted, Charges Laid
On December 9th, 2007, at approximately 2:20 am, an off-duty RCMP officer observed three intoxicated males harassing a female in the drive-thru line up at a Richmond Restaurant. The off-duty officer approached the males and told them to leave the female alone. [...] The three males immediately became verbally abusive towards the officer. [...] Richmond RCMP officers responded and all three males were arrested. [...] The off duty officer suffered minor injuries.

Charges have now been approved for the three males, they are scheduled to appear in Richmond Court on January 22nd and 24th, 2008. They are charged with Assault of a Police Officer and are identified as: Darcy BARBER, 21 yrs old, from Burnaby, Jeffrey FLUNEY, 26 yrs old, from Richmond, Christopher RUSSELL, 25 yrs old, from Surrey

Example 4
Nickelback front man faces impaired driving charge
Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger has been charged with impaired driving, after being stopped by the RCMP in Surrey last month. [...]Kroeger, who has a home in Abbotsford, is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 25, facing charges of impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol level over .08. His lawyer says the singer should be treated as innocent until proven guilty.

There are others, backed by years of experience, who know that the RCMP is lying through their teeth when they say that favouritism among police officers doesn't exist:

Defence lawyer Rishi Gill, a former Crown prosecutor, scoffs at the claim neither officer got preferential treatment.
"My experience is that rarely do police officers release people on a (promise to appear) for a serious crime, such as impaired driving causing death, and I have had clients accused of very minor crimes where police wouldn't consider releasing them on a (promise to appear)," said Gill.

As I said before, I'm personally not fond of the idea of releasing full names of suspects, or even of convicts; prison-time (after a fair trial) is good enough for me. But if the full name does need to be exposed on ideological grounds (and the law-and-order types in N-America are convinced it does) than at least be consistent about it.

Tomi Hamner and Benjamin Robinson DID get preferential treatment because their names were NOT released by the RCMP, while others were not so lucky.

LINKS
- Canada.com: I enjoy drinking and driving a lot better than going to jail; waisting public moneys is in my genes alright
- Getting It Right: I enjoyed not having being charged for drunk driving for as long as it lasted
- Getting it Right: I like drinking and driving too!

And another RCMP Officer caught drunk behind the wheel...but no worries; no charges have been laid

2008-10-30T13:52:00.013-07:00

Who knew that drinking and driving was this popular among RCMP officers?

Only five days after an RCMP officer failed a breathalyzer test after being involved in a fatal collision in Tsawwassen, B.C., CTV has learned of another incident involving a Lower Mainland law enforcer and allegations of drinking and driving.
RCMP confirm a female New Westminster Police officer was involved in a crash involving alcohol.

The 47-year-old officer was driving an unmarked police van when she collided with two or more signs driving eastbound near the Westview exit in North Vancouver's Upper Levels Highway Oct. 17.

I bet the officer wasn't formally charged:

No charges have been laid, but the off-duty officer has promised to appear in court Dec. 17. She is facing impaired driving charges. Her name has not been released.

I told you so, and neither was her name released (yet). No favouritism of course; how can the common RCMP practice of refusing to charge one of their own (think Dziekanski) be favouritism?

UPDATE
Lots of confusion (moi inclu) on what is considered "being charged". Can anyone explain the phenomenon to me? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to understand now that the process of a successful conviction works like this:

step 1. arrest
step 2. charges (informal) laid by police/RCMP
step 3. formally charged by judge

But where in the process do the police/RCMP release names? From Wally Oppal I get the impression that this happens at step 3, after being formally charged by a judge:

B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal denies the RCMP officer involved in a fatal collision in Tsawwassen this past weekend is receiving favourable treatment.

Oppal points out no member of the public is ever named prior to the laying of a charge.

Informal charges (step 2) have been laid, that's why we know about the pending court case on January 15th, 2009. But then how do we explain the following four examples?

Step 2: example 1
Chilliwack drug war heats up
Curtis Wayne Vidal, 22, Chad Hansen, 21, and Martin Snowden, 22, face assault and weapons charges.

Step 2: example 2
RCMP have shut down a known drug house and arrested six people.

Police raided the 9th Avenue home and found a large quantity of cocaine and marijuana. Shannon Hernandez-Zuniga, 29, Sundown Bill Steiger, 32, Travis Starblanket, 20, Wesley Teal, 25, Chan Van Troung, 45, and Michael Bruce, 18, face a string of drug charges.

Step 2: example 3
Richmond - Off-Duty Officer Assaulted, Charges Laid
On December 9th, 2007, at approximately 2:20 am, an off-duty RCMP officer observed three intoxicated males harassing a female in the drive-thru line up at a Richmond Restaurant. The off-duty officer approached the males and told them to leave the female alone. [...] The three males immediately became verbally abusive towards the officer. [...] Richmond RCMP officers responded and all three males were arrested. [...] The off duty officer suffered minor injuries.

Charges have now been approved for the three males, they are scheduled to appear in Richmond Court on January 22nd and 24th, 2008. They are charged with Assault of a Police Officer and are identified as: Darcy BARBER, 21 yrs old, from Burnaby, Jeffrey FLUNEY, 26 yrs old, from Richmond, Christopher RUSSELL, 25 yrs old, from Surrey

Step 2:example 4
Nickelback front man faces impaired driving charge
Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger has been charged with impaired driving, after being stopped by the RCMP in Surrey last month. [...]Kroeger, who has a home in Abbotsford, is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 25, facing charges of impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol level over .08. His lawyer says the singer should be treated as innocent until proven guilty.

In all four the examples a court case was scheduled but had not taken place yet (as far as I can tell), but the names had already been released. Is Wally Oppal lying or am I missing something?

LINKS
- Getting it Right: RCMP officers enjoy drinking and driving 1
- CTV: RCMP officers enjoy drinking and driving 2
- Buckdog: RCMP officers don't get preferential treatment; we solely refuse to charge them
- Edmonton Sun:Wally Oppal's non-denial on RCMP's favouritism: but why does he have to be such a jerk about it?

RCMP officer Benjamin Monty Robinson involved in Robert Dziekanski killing AND main suspect in drunk-driving-causing-death incident last Saturday

2008-10-29T15:21:00.014-07:00

RCMP officer Benjamin Monty Robinson, one of the four officers involved in the killing of Robert Dziekanski, has been caught drunk-driving and killing 21 year old Orion Hutchinson last Saturday.

One of the four RCMP officers involved in the Tasering of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski is facing charges of impaired driving causing death after a collision in Tsawwassen Saturday.

However, Delta police -- who are investigating the crash -- have refused to identify the officer until he makes his first court appearance on Jan. 15 and is formally charged.

Yes, the police is always eager to come up with names, except when it involves one of their colleges; Getting it Right did find the answer to who it was here:

An RCMP officer facing charges of impaired driving causing death in Delta is refusing to comment on the charges against him.

Reached by The Vancouver Sun on his cellphone Wednesday, Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson hung up as soon as a reporter identified himself.

Follow-up calls to Robinson went to voice mail and messages left for Robinson were not returned.

Robinson is due to appear in Surrey Provincial Court on Jan. 15 after he was allegedly involved in a collision Saturday night that left 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson dead.

To be honest with you, I think the idea of releasing the names of suspects is a bad practice to begin with. In the Netherlands all media is used to address suspects (but also convicted criminals) only by the first letter of their last name (that would be Benjamin R. in this case); and I am in favour of such a policy. But if the full name does need to be exposed on ideological grounds (and the Law and Order types in N-America are convinced it does) than at least be consistent about it.

Footnote: Investigations into the death of Robert Dziekanski have been delayed AGAIN. We still don't know who the other three suspected killers were. How's that justice and consistency working for you?

UPDATE:
-Read also the Macleans "blog"-post by Chris Selley: "Suspended with pay"

UPDATE 2
-Facebook Group: R.I.P Orion Hutchinson... STOP IMPAIRED DRIVING!!

UPDATE 3
- Benjamin Robinson was supervisor during taser killing of the Robert Dziekanski
This doesn't look good, folks. Why is this suspect of multiple killings still out on the streets? Why are out citizens not protected from these reckless killers? Does an RCMP batch give one a licence to taser someone to death? Does an RCMP barch give one a license to a hit-and-run while drunk? What's wrong with our RCMP?

LINKS
- Mounties in trouble, again
- Taser Mountie faces drunk-driving-causing-death charge
- Buckdog: Robert Dziekanski's Mother Threatens Legal Action Against RCMP

Greenspan admits he made a "mistake"

2008-10-23T20:52:00.002-07:00

The "architect of the 2008 credit crunch" has admitted he made a "mistake":

Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Thursday the credit crisis had exceeded anything he had imagined and admitted he was wrong to think that banks would protect themselves from financial market chaos.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks and others, was such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders,” he said.

In the second of two days of tense hearings on Capitol Hill, Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives, clashed with current and former regulators and with Republicans on his own committee over blame for the financial crisis. [more]

Of course there was never any malicious intend; of course not. Who could know there would be an and to the supply of NINJA loans?

LINKS
- Financial Times: "I made a mistake"
- Wikipedia: Architect of the 2008 Credit Crunch: Alan Greenspan
- Wikipedia: Why the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
- Wikipedia: Ninja loans for all of us

Corporate media refuses to report on failure of FPTP; it's now up to the majority of the House of Commons to introduce a new electoral system

2008-10-22T11:31:00.012-07:00

A "letter to the editor" nobody should miss.

Lawrence Hearn from North Vancouver, writer of the letter, starts of with the problem of our FPTP system:

Dear Editor:

The federal election once again has shown that Canada's electoral system of first by the post results in an unrepresentative government.

The parties' percentage of popular vote was: Conservatives 37.6 per cent; Liberals 26.2 per cent; NDP 18.2 per cent; Bloc 10 per cent; Greens 6.8 per cent.

In other words, Canadian voters soundly rejected the Conservative agenda yet they still get to form the government, fortunately with a continuing minority preventing them from doing the nasty on all and sundry without hindrance.

The corporate media's refusal to report on this failure of the electoral system amounts to nothing less than collusion with the anti-democratic forces of the extreme right in the Conservative party.

The solution follows:

The simplest way to introduce a fair and representative electoral system would be to use the ranked choice voting system in use in San Francisco and some other U.S. jurisdictions.

How it works:

Candidates must receive more than 50 per cent of votes to be elected. Voters, instead of simply marking an X, would rank (one, two) their choices.

Candidates failing to get 50 per cent would move to an instant runoff where the lowest candidate is dropped and the second choices of that candidate's voters distributed to the remaining candidates.

If no one gets the required 50 per cent plus one then the next lowest candidate would be dropped and the second choice votes distributed and so on until a candidate achieved the required threshold.

Why this system is preferable above other options:

The ranked choice voting system would require the least change to the present system with the maximum result.

Who can introduce changes to our electoral system?

Hopefully, the House of Commons majority can move to introduce such a system (or any better system) before the next election, thereby establishing a more representative system of government in Canada.

Lawrence Hearn

North Vancouver

LINKS

- Canada.com: Reform our electoral system
- Wikipedia: FPTP
- Wikipedia: Why FPTP sucks

Head of "Taser France" arrested for spying on leftist presidential candidate

2008-10-15T12:55:00.016-07:00

The French are fed up with the tactics of Taser & Co. and have now arrested the head of SMP Technologies (also nicknamed "Taser France"), Antoine Di Zazzo.

No reason to doubt Arizona's TASER INTERNATIONAL has something to do with this, although they love to pretend they don't: TASER INTERNATIONAL is a company that how showed again and again (and again) that it cannot be trusted.

Read on to see how real scum operates:

The Connextion
Police have arrested the head of a French company that supplies Taser stun guns [nicknamed Taser France] to security forces on suspicion of spying on a Trotskyist leader who has campaigned for a ban on the controversial weapons.

Six police officers, a customs official and two private detectives were detained along with Antoine Di Zazzo, head of SMP Technologies ["Taser France", the sole importer and distributor of taser] guns in France, officials said.

Paris prosecutors launched a probe in May after a magazine reported that a private detective firm was tailing ex-presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot, the postman leader of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire(LCR) [and a fierce critic of taser use in France].

Indeed; "Taser France", in a concerted effort with some police officers, customs, and private investigators tried to frame one of France's main taser critics, Olivier Besancenot.

Why? Read on:

Besancenot said he was due to appear next Monday in a Paris court because Di Zazzo was suing him for libel, "seeking 50,000 euros from me simply because I drew attention to an Amnesty International report" on Taser guns.

And for this libel suit, any more information on perhaps less-than-legal practises on the side of Besancenot would be excellent "discoveries" for the DiZ Zazzo and his rightwing capitalist and statist friends.

It's interesting to read that Di Zazzo is suing merely for mentioning the Amnesty International report on Tasers; how can that be libel? I'm sure the famous report is much hated by TASER INTERNATIONAL, and I don't think it will end up in its own junk science section of their site:

Rights group Amnesty says that nearly 300 people have died around the world after being zapped with a Taser and has demanded a moratorium on the weapon's use while a full investigation is conducted.

A United Nations committee said last year that use of the gun constitutes "a form of torture" that can result in death.

Tasering IS torture, I couldn't agree more.

Di Zazzo, whose company has supplied Tasers to the French army, police and gendarmerie since 2004, has adamantly denied that the guns can be lethal.

Of course tasers are lethal, nobody is denying THAT anymore in North America (unless they are really, really stupid), even TASER INTERNATIONAL doesn't make any of those bigoted claims on their site anymore.

Besancenot is currently winding up his LCR party to found a Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste in January, which will seek to attract members of the Parti Communiste, environmentalists, disaffected Socialists and anti-globalisation activists.

In last year's presidential election [Besancenot] won 4% of the vote.

Four percent of the vote for a communist party? That's not bad.

LINK
- Taser France
- Wikipedia: Olivier Besancenot
- The Connexion: Taser head under arrest for spying
- TASER INTERNATIONAL: the amount of junk science we produce is only second to the amount of killings
- Truth not Taser: See for yourself how well the taser saves lives

More on the domain taser.fr and SMP TECHNOLOGIES

Domain name : taser.fr
Status: Active (see also Web Site)

Registrar : AMEN / Agence des Médias Numériques

Creation date: 03/05/2004
Anniversary date: 26 May

Domain Name Servers (DNS):

* Server # 1 : ns1.amen.fr [62.193.206.141]
* Server # 2 : ns2.amen.fr [212.43.229.70]

More info Holder : SMP TECHNOLOGIES
55, avenue Marceau
75116 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 45 00 40 83
Email: info@taser.fr

More info Administrative contact: Antoine Di Zazzo
SMP TECHNOLOGIES
55, avenue Marceau
75116 Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 45 00 40 83
Email: info@taser.fr

More info Technical contact : AMEN France
Departement Noms de domaine
12, Rond-Point des Champs-Elysees
75008 Paris
France
Phone: +33 8 92 55 66 77
Email: afnic@amen.fr

TSX major drop

2008-10-06T07:49:00.003-07:00

Watch it here:

9,874.01
-929.34 (-8.60%)

LINK
- Google Finance: Major drop TSX
- Globe and Mail: Stock markets in freefall as TSX dives more than 1,000 points

Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neo-Liberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism (video)

2008-10-06T07:12:00.004-07:00

Watch it here: Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neo-Liberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

Introduction
As the world reels from the financial crisis on Wall Street and the taxpayer-funded $700 billion bailout, we spend the hour with Naomi Klein on the economy, politics and “disaster capitalism.” The “Shock Doctrine” author recently spoke at the University of Chicago to oppose the creation of an economic research center named after the University’s most famous economist–Milton Friedman. Klein says Friedman’s economic philosophy championed the kind of deregulation that led to the current crisis.

The credit crunch is spreading to financial markets around the world. Nearly 160,000 jobs were lost here in the United States in September, and that"s not including losses directly resulting from the financial meltdown. Wall Street might be breathing a little easier since Congress passed the $700 billion dollar bailout plan on Friday, but there are no signs of an easy or quick recovery.

Today we take a look back at the economic philosophy that championed the kind of deregulation that led to this crisis. We spend the hour with investigative journalist and author Naomi Klein. She is the bestselling author of “The Shock Doctrine.”

Naomi Klein spoke at the University of Chicago last week. She was invited by a faculty group opposed to the creation of an economic research center called the Milton Friedman Institute. It has a $200 million dollar endowment and is named after the University"s most famous economist, the leader of the neoliberal Chicago school of economics.

Naomi Klein, journalist and author of the books “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” and “No Logo.”

LINKS
- Democracy Now! : The end of Milton Freedman's Neo-Liberalism
- Wikipedia: Milton Freedman